Penrice Castle <1>
Sepr 16th 1811
Ì õ Ä å á ñ Å í ñ õ <2>
I was very much amused with your Observations <3> on the Comet <4> of which I think you have not made the tail spread enough, it is more so [illustration] than so [illustration] as you have made it. But the tail has perhaps encreased [sic] since then, as it becomes more visible after the Comet has passed its perihelion, from not being lost in the superior brightness of the Sun. Pray describe your Study to me, & tell me if it has a bookcase in it. Are there many new boys?
Here is the Inscription (which we could not recollect) for the Apartment in Chepstow Castle, <5> where Harry Marten, <6> one of the Regicides of Charles 1st was confined
For thirty years secluded from Mankind
Here Marten lingered. Often have these Walls
Echoed his footsteps, as with even tread
He paced around his prison. Not to him
Did Nature's fair varieties exist,
He never saw the Sun's delightful beams,
Save when thro' yon high bars he pour'd a sad
And broken splendor.
We returned from Margam <7> last Saturday, I enjoyed the hot weather there excessively, The Nights were quite Italian & We walked out till one o'clock in the Morning amidst the perfume of the Orange Trees.
Te validissime diligo <8>
E T Feilding
I found out your medical Sentences, all but the in terjection interjection O! which seemed to be misplaced for the English sense
W. H. F. Talbot Esqr
Revd Dr Butler's <9>
Harrow <10>
Middlesex
Penrice Sept. 16. 1811 <11>
Notes:
1. Penrice Castle and Penrice House, Gower, Glamorgan, 10 mi SW of Swansea: home of Christopher Rice Mansel Talbot.
2. My Dear Henry [English words spelt out in Greek characters].
3. Letter not located.
4. The Great Comet of 1811 was discovered on 25 March by Honor¨¦ Flaugergues. Reaching its brightest point in October, it remained visible to the naked eye for more than 250 days, a record held until 1997.
5. Chepstow Castle, Monmouthshire, southeast Wales.
6. Henry Marten (1602-1680). In 1660 he was found guilty of taking part in the King's death and was imprisoned at Chepstow Castle, where he remained until his death.
7. Margam Park, Glamorgan: home of Christopher Rice Mansel Talbot.
8. I love you most strongly.
9. Rev George Butler (1774-1853), Headmaster at Harrow.
10. Harrow School: WHFT attended from 1811-1815 and his son Charles from 1855-1859.
11. Written in another hand at the back of address panel.