Harrow <1>
July 20. 1811.
My dear mamma,
As you desired me I sat down & did some French the moment you were gone, I did a good deal but the translation was not faithful, so I will write it here at the end of my letter; after which I translated some of Miss Edgeworth’s Tales, <2> which Dr. Butler <3> was so kind as to look over, we could not tell what to put for ‘shawls’ & ‘cherry brandy’. I would be much obliged to you to send me some nice writing paper along with the Latin Grammar, for I find this is my last sheet, I have struggled against sorrow & its supernumerary attendant the pain in my stomach very well I think, it rains very fast & I cannot go out, & it is very cold today to what it has been, the thermometer has been fluctuating between 70º and 65º there several days; when you return to London, I wish you would have the bed taken out of my little laboratory & ask Mr. Webster to buy these things which have been lost, or broke, or used – viz. Manganese, Sulphate of Iron, Litmus & Turmeric Paper, a deflagrating spoon, a glass Retort, a Glass Blowpipe, a large Cork with a wire through it, to fit that large bell glass of mine, & some Tinfoil. Have the books been all bound yet? my pain is considerably less than yesterday. I hope it will be soon entirely gone, it will be thirteen thousand, three hundred minutes, till I see your dear face gain, & eight hundred thousand seconds, two hundred & twenty hours – I am very cold at present. – After Dinner 4 oclock I am afraid it will be too late for the post, & you will not get it till Tuesday if it is, however never mind – I think I shall ask Dr. Butler to let me take some of the physic you sent me, it may do me good, as I feel some pain at present - write soon, & often I pray.
< De’l> De l’Anglois <4>– The Lottery –– Popular Tales
Près de Derby <5>, sur la route qui conduit à Darley Grove, il y a une petite cabane, qui appartenoit autrefois à un nommé Maurice Robinson: le jasmin qui couvre le portique, fut planté par Ellen sa femme: elle étoit une jeune femme très sage, industrieuse, et aimée de tous ses voisins, parcequ’elle étoit d’un caractère doux, tendre, et affectionné, et d'un exterieur toujours propre; aussi rendit elle sa maison si agréable, que son mari se hâta toujours à revenir auprès d’elle lorsqu’il eût fini le travail du jour: il fut un des ouvriers employés dans les manufactures de coton à Derby, remarquable par sa bonne conduite et son attention assidue à son travail: les affaires allèrent très bien à tous égards jusqu’à ce qu’un parent de Maurice, M.dme Dolly Robinson, vînt demeurer chez lui, celle ci avoit été blanchisseuse dans une grande famille, où elle avoit appris à prendre plaisir à jaser et à boire le thé, et où elle avoit acquis du goût pour des Shawls, et pour les cerises à l’eau de vie, elle crût faire une grâce à ses jeunes amis, en venant demeurer chez eux; parceque, disoit elle, ils étoient jeunes et sans experience, et comme elle avoit beaucoup d’usage du monde, elle pouvoit et vouloit leur conseiller: et outre celà, elle avoit eu un legs de quelques cens livres Sterl.; et avoit ramassé quelque chose en service, qui pouvoit dédommager Ellen de la peine de prendre son avis avec respect, et la mettre à son aise pour tout le reste de sa vie. (Corrected by Dr. Butler)
De l’Anglois <6> – Elisabeth
La ville de Tobolsk <7> capitale de la Sibère, est située sur le bord de l’Irtish; elle est limitée au nord par des bois vastes, etendus jusqu’au mer Froid; cette espace immense de onze cens <illegible>, est entremêlé de montagnes pleins de rochers, et couverts d’un neige perpetuel, avec des plains stériles, donts les sables gélés n’ont jamais reçu l’impression d’un pied humain, et avec d’immenses riviéres dont les eaux glaciales n’ont jamais arrosé une prairie ni ouvert au Soleil les beautés d’un fleur: en avançant plus près au pole on ne voit aucune de ces nobles productions de la nature dont les rames hautes donnent d’asyle au voyageur fatigué ni voit on rien que des ronces, et des bouleaux nains – (not corrected)
Goodbye my dear Mamma I shall soon see you.
Yr. Affte. Son
W. H. F. Talbot
Lady Elisabeth Feilding
31 Sackville St.
London
Notes:
1. Harrow School: WHFT attended from 1811–1815 and his son Charles from 1855-1859.
2. Maria Edgeworth, Essays on practical education (London: Simpkin and Marshall, 1822).
3. Rev George Butler (1774–1853), Headmaster at Harrow.
4. From the English
5. Near Derby, on the road which leads to Darley Grove, there is a small hut, which used to belong to a man by the name of Maurice Robinson: the jasmine which covered the porch was planted by his wife Ellen: she was a most wise, industrious woman, loved by all her neighbours because she was of a sweet, tender and affectionate nature, and always of clean appearance; she also made her house so agreeable that her husband would always hurry to return home after a day’s work: he was one of the workers employed in Derby’s cotton mills, noted for his good behaviour and assiduous attention to his work: matters were going well in all respects until a relative of Maurice’s, Mrs Dolly Robinson, came to stay: she had been a laundrywoman in a large family, where she had learned to take pleasure in chatting and drinking tea, and where she had acquired a taste for Shawls and for cherry brandy, she thought to be doing her young friends a favour in coming to stay with them; for, she said, they were young and without experience, and as she was versant in the ways of the world, she could and wanted to offer them counsel: and besides, she had received a legacy of some few hundred pounds sterling; and had put an amount to one side while in service, that would allow her to respectfully recompense Ellen for the trouble of asking her opinion, and to ensure she would be comfortable for the rest of her life.
6. From the English
7. The town of Tobolsk, capital of Siberia, is located on the banks of the Irtish; it is bordered in the north by vast forests which stretch as far as the Cold sea; this immense expanse of some eleven hundred <illegible> is dotted with mountains filled with rocks and covered with a perpetual snow, with sterile plains whose frozen sands have never received the print of a human foot, and with immense rivers whose icy waters have never watered a prairie nor opened to the Sun the beauties of a flower: as one advances towards the pole, one sees not one of these noble productions of nature whose high boughs offer shelter to the weary traveller, one sees only thorns and dwarf birches.