Sackville St <1>
Sunday 16th November 1823
I arrived at half past four this afternoon: I came from Canterbury this morning, had a very pleasant drive thro' Kent, it being a bright sunshiny day - On gaining the summit of Shooters' Hill, I expected to descry London with St Pauls reflecting the setting sun, when lo! nothing met my eyes but the most awful fog - We entered the fog at Greenwich, & it grew thicker & thicker till at Westminster Bridge, the opposite bank of the river was as invisible as Dover was from Boulogne, & on entering Sackville St I could but just distinguish the houses at the upper end - the fog was yellowish with a taste of coal smoke It is too bad to have such a mist in London, when the day is so fine everywhere else - You ask me how I got thro' the Douane at Pont de Beauvoisin<2> - Very easily I thank you - You should rather have asked concerning that at Dover - I never was so tormented in my life - I don't wonder foreigners complain of being écorchés vifs <3> in England - Dover is the land of extortion & exaction - I blush that it shd be an English town - I got thro' for the delay of 4 hours & half; & the moderate payment of £11..19s!!! Capt Bushell (his mate rather) used me very ill, assuring me positively that the duty on French carriages vwas repaid on re-exportation which is not the case - (Whether he deceived me intentionally for the sake of the freight of the carriage, or whether thro' ignorance I know not) Fortunately my commissioner got it appraised for the low value of £15 of which I had to pay half or £7..10s Had I been aware, I shd have left it at Boulogne - Nothing like experience - My unfortunate carriage pays both ways, as French in England, & as English in France - For my being an Englishman (say the douaniers is so strong a primâ facie evidence of the carriage being English, as to supersede even the certificate of M. Cornion the <4> maker) The Dover Customhouse is a disgrace to the nation - I have been in trouble about the parcel for the D. of Leeds, <5> which I discovered the searchers in their wilfulness had unpacked, dispersed, & destroyed the envelope. However I have collected it all right again, & found a memorandum with the address - I was too unwell with the sea, to attend to the customhouse, Giovanni <6> was not attended to by them (being a foreigner) the commissioner neglected his duty to attend other customers - One of my things was given to a wrong family from whom I reclaimed it at Canterbury - Is it not a shame that in the Dover custom house, no one can speak French? I put your letter in the Dover post - All the parcels you gave me are safe - the search however was ludicrously strict: They examined for a long time some papier à calquer, <7> not being able to imagine what made it opaque and fancying it perhaps to be concealed lace -
Your affte Son
Henry Talbot
Miladi
Miladi Feilding
Dame Angloise
Gênes
Italie
Notes:
1. 31 Sackville Street, London residence of the Feildings, often used as a London base by WHFT.
2. West of Chambery in what was then Savoy (now Southeastern France).
3. Flayed alive; fleeced.
4. No opening bracket.
5. George William Frederick Osborne, 6th Duke of Leeds (1775-1838).
6. Giovanni Percij.
7. Tracing paper.