Laycock abbey
14th Janry
My Dear Henry
I write by return of Post as you desire, to say we are fixed here & shall be very glad to see you next Monday – i.e. we are fixtures but Horatia <1> is moveable, & is engaged to Bowood <2> next week, however she will put it off a day or two to see you, as you say you can stay only a few days. I am sure you can never find any place dull as you have a new science to explore everywhere you go. I remember when I was bored to death at Worthing you were as happy as possible in that little dark back parlour, making discoveries every day & never heeding the snow & dismalness without. From what I read in the Globe <3> since I cannot help thinking some illnatured person has attributed to Crosse <4> finding the insects in Flint in the same way the objects in the Moon were attributed to Herschell <5> to make him appear absurd. Otherwise what does Dr Ritchie <6> mean? who has abused him. Let me know whether you really come Monday that your cowl <7> may be put up in the dressing room – & your chimny [sic] not smoke so abominably as when you were in it last.
The weather is deplorable. I have not been out these two days
affly yrs
E F
The 2d vol of Hisy of Ireland <8> will not be out till the Spring. He fags very much at it, & after all none of his own friends will read it, they have told him so, and would him [sic] in lighter works. I believe it will be very well done but it is an ungrateful subject. There was little done on Stavordale’s <9> Birthday, only a Ball for the Servants & Strong Beer for the Tenants.
H. Fox Talbot Esqr
Sidmouth
Devon
Notes:
1. Henrietta Horatia Maria Gaisford, née Feilding (1810–1851), WHFT’s half-sister.
2. Bowood House, nr Calne, Wiltshire, 5 mi NE of Lacock: seat of the Marquess of Lansdowne.
3. The Globe (London).
4. Andrew Crosse (1784-1855), of Fyne Court, Broomfield, Somerset, was a serious amateur scientist who was a pioneer in electricity and mineralogy. He attended the BAAS meeting at Bristol in 1836 and shortly after that embarked on a series of experiments subjecting powdered flint to a strong electrical current. Twenty-six days later, he observed insects growing out of the powder, who soon moved about. Although Crosse never claimed to have created life, local newspapers picked up and spread the story, forcing him into seclusion. There is some speculation that Frankenstein was inspired by this story.
5. The Great Moon Hoax was played on Sir John Herschel (1792-1871) while he was at the Cape of Good Hope in 1835. The New York Sun ran a series of totally fictional articles about his supposed discovery of life on the moon, excitedly reporting on his day to day observations of the civilization that he could see through his great telescope.
6. Probably William Ritchie (1790–1837), physicist.
7. Chimney-cowl.
8. Thomas Moore, The History of Ireland (London: Longmans, Green, 1835–1845).
9. Stephen Fox Strangways (21 March 1817 - 1848), Lord Stavordale from 1837-1848. <.p>