Tuesday
My Dear Henry
Your last Letter to Horatia <1> was redolent of Spring, & called up all those vernal sensations which inspired Milton <2> in various parts of Comus & Lycidas. He took great notice of such flowers as were known in his time, & makes frequent mention of the Primrose, the Cowslip & the violet.
We have had desperate storms & darkness & hail the last 3 days, & I have for the first time this year, got a bad cold which I fear may turn to Influenza, which would be most inconvenient at this moment. I dined at Lansdowne House <3> yesterday & had the Satisfaction of sitting next to Mr Macaulay <4> & was glad to hear him abuse Niebuhr, <5> who he said had substituted fables of his own instead of the old ones, which were of the two, most agreeable to believe.
You did not enclose the flower you intended, but I send the Athenæum <6> – all the 8 or 9 people for whom Amandier <7> took Letters have been extremely civil en paroles <8> but not one had even asked her to come for half an hour of an evening or even to hear her play on the Harp, which would have cost them nothing. Madame la Comtesse de Colbert, wife of the Prefect the greatest lady in the place, got a third person to find out whether Amandie would give lessons for two francs!! In the mean time she is spending her money, & living in Solitude. She is of course trés découragée <9> & cannot tell what to do –
Notes:
1. Henrietta Horatia Maria Gaisford, née Feilding (1810–1851), WHFT’s half-sister.
2. John Milton, Comus (1634), and Lycidas (1637).
3. Lansdowne House, London: home of the Marquis of Lansdowne, WHFT's uncle and cousins.
4. Thomas Babington Macaulay (1800–1859), MP & historian.
5. Barthold Georg Niebuhr (1776–1831), historian.
6. The Athenaeum (London).
7. Amélina Petit De Billier, ‘Mamie’, ‘Amandier’ (1798–1876), governess and later close friend of the Talbot family [See Amélina's journal].
8. In talking to her.
9. Very discouraged.