[this is written on the same sheet as a note from Horatia: Doc. No: 01492]
Paris
12th December
My Dearest
Horatia <1> & I think you did not see us draw up alongside of you dans l’obscurité de <2> notre Dame des Victoires & wave our Handkerchiefs at the carriage window, for you “gave no sign” & were soon ponder dans les tenèbres. <3> It seemed to us you would have chosen better to have placed yourself in the front part of your Seventy four than buried au fond <4> as you were, or as we suppose you were from what Giovanni <5> Said. His successor ne brûlera jamais la Thamise, <6> I thought he looked very plumbaceous. I have lent Giovanni a great many books, he swallows them wholesale. Gwynne <7> has heard of a place for him Piquéur to a Prince, in which he always would have good Horses at command, mais helas! <8> il faut porter la livrée. <9> I begin to have hopes about the pain in my side as it is much lessened. Pray write very often, it is my greatest pleasure, you cannot imagine what a blank your absence creates. We hope your innocent little pâté found favour in your eyes & that the Gingerbread Nuts warmed you in the cold Moonlight.
Mr F. <10> has been much disturbed to think that your reception in Sackville Street <11> would be with all Richard’s <12> vaunted uncomfortableness, as nobody had written to apprize him & he is never where he ought to be, & perhaps ten to one you could get in instead of finding a bed ready & a fire lit at the end of a wintry journey. Mr F. thinks it just possible you remembered to write yourself to Richard a week before Pray let us know what state you found the House in, & whether your new Plumbeus <13> contributes to under its gloominess more tolerable by his attentions or vice versa.
God bless you My Dearest
W. H. Fox Talbot Esqre
31 Sackville Street
London
Notes:
1. Henrietta Horatia Maria Gaisford, née Feilding (1810–1851), WHFT’s half-sister.
2. In the obscurity of.
3. In the dark.
4. In the depths.
5. Giovanni Percij.
6. Will never burn the Thames.
7. Mrs Gwynne (d. winter 1841/1842), lady’s maid, cook and housekeeper to Elisabeth Feilding.
8. But Alas!
9. Someone has to carry the delivery.
10. Rear Admiral Charles Feilding (1780–1837), Royal Navy; WHFT’s step-father.
11. 31 Sackville Street, London residence of the Feildings, often used as a London base by WHFT.
12. Richard, a servant.
13. Another word for ‘plumbago’, an ugly looking servant who resembles a plant [see Doc. No: 01232]. Also ‘plumbeus’ in Latin is dull, stupid, heavy, oppressive, bad.