28 May
My Dear Henry
I see the day is fixed for a dinner to Sir J. Herschell <1> with a long & splendid list of Stewards. Mr Moore <2> told me he had a very clever & amusing letter from you. He dined Saturday at the Literary fund, for the inauguration of Ld Lansdowne <3> as President. Young Kean <4> spoke extremely well, and Talfourd <5> badly. I should like to have been there in the Gallery appropriated to the Ladies. The 3 parcels you do not want, shall be kept here for you, but there is a box of about a cubic foot, shall that be sent by the coach? I mean it is about a cube of a foot.
The scarlet fever is all over London, the Hartopps have been obliged to be off a bargain they had made of a house for 2 months, & given the Man 50 guineas to let them off upon finding the scarlet fever was next door, they then took a house in a district of the town & then found somebody had died of the Scarlet fever 3 weeks before – so they are gone in despair to the Star & Garter at Richmond Kit <6> has bought a house at last in Belgrave Square and was much annoyed two hours after he had concluded the bargain, by hearing that he might have had one at Richmond Terrace, which was a situation they had both set their heart upon but they had been told there was no chance as that situation is so popular & few houses there
Notes:
1. Sir John Frederick William Herschel (1792–1871), astronomer & scientist.
2. Thomas Moore (1780–1852), Irish poet.
3. Henry Petty Fitzmaurice, 3rd Marquess of Lansdowne (1780–1863), MP, WHFT’s uncle.
4. Probably Charles John Kean (1811–1868), actor.
5. Probably Sir Thomas Noon Talfourd (1795–1854), English dramatist, poet and jurist.
6. Christopher Rice Mansel Talbot (1803–1890), immensely wealthy landowner, mathematician & politician; WHFT’s Welsh cousin.