Harrow. <1>
May 24. 1812
My dear Mamma,
I am very much obliged to you for interesting yourself about my chemistry; if you have written to Dr Butler <2> indeed, you have done the only thing in the world that you ought not to have done. I am extremely sorry you did not consult me first; this has entirely destroyed all my further amusement while here – However I perfectly know that you did it to oblige me. I hope the letter (if you have written) will miscarry – Can not you imagine how disagreeable it must be to have a master privy to one’s secrets? Either he will not allow me to amuse myself for fear of my making dangerous experiments; or he will be talking to me about it before other boys who plague one to death about it – All together it is a most unlucky business as could have happened.
The Percevals <3> return tomorrow altogether – Last Thursday (a rainy day) was Speechday – Perhaps Aunt L. <4> may come next speechday (in June) – Where are my cousins? Send me Betty’s <5> direction
Goodbye me dear Mamma, Yr Affte Son
W. H. F. Talbot
P.S. I am sure you could not have foreseen how much harm your letter to Dr B– will do me – give my love to Mr Feilding <6>
Lady E. Feilding
Malvern
Worcester
Notes:
1. Harrow School: WHFT attended from 1811–1815 and his son Charles from 1855-1859.
2. Rev George Butler (1774–1853), Headmaster at Harrow.
3. The sons and nephews of Spencer Perceval (1762–1812), British Prime Minister (1809–1812)
4. Louisa Emma Petty Fitzmaurice, née Fox Strangways, Marchioness of Lansdowne (1785-1851), wife of Henry Petty Fitzmaurice, 3rd Marquess of Lansdowne; Lady of the Bedchamber to Queen Victoria, 1837-1838; WHFT's aunt.
5. Elizabeth Vickery ‘Betty’, WHFT’s governess. When she died in autumn 1835, WHFT paid to have a gravestone placed at Cutcombe, Somerset, inscribed: 'Erected to the Memory of Elizbth Vickery his kind & faithful nurse by Henry Fox Talbot of Lacock Abbey in the country of Wilts Esqre'; the stone's inscription is still readable - See Doc. No: 03205.
6. Rear Admiral Charles Feilding (1780–1837), Royal Navy; WHFT’s step-father.