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Document number: 1131
Date: Sun 30 Nov 1823
Recipient: TALBOT William Henry Fox
Author: GAISFORD Henrietta Horatia Maria, née Feilding
Collection: British Library, London, Manuscripts - Fox Talbot Collection
Last updated: 24th January 2012

[this is written on the same sheet as a note from Lady Elisabeth: Doc. No: 00151]

Genoa
Sunday 30th Novr 1823

My dear Henry

I received your letter from Paris some days ago, which pleased me very much. You have been a great deal longer going to Paris than we had calculated – and had not it seems such fine weather as we had. – I am very glad you went by Autun, <1> & saw the roman antiquities of which you sent me such a pretty little sketch. – We went last Thursday to a funeral ceremony in honour of the late Pope Pius the Seventh <2> in the church dell’ Annunziata. There was a very fine mausoleum which looked like red marble granite, with a door on each side with two Doric pillars of white marble, & weeping figures all round. The church was hung with black drapery and the cenotaph was lit up by concealed lamps. There was a great deal of singing and afterwards a funeral oration was pronounced from the pulpit, which lasted a whole hour, of course in praise of the deceased, quel gloriosissimo Pontefice. <3> – Among other things he said, talking of his fortezza, <4> that Rome must no longer boast of de’ suoi Cammilli e desuoi Regoli, <5> beca they being quite outdone by Pio Settimo.

He also mentioned the re-establishment of the Jesuits as one of the his great actions; towards the end he said that we had cried enough & began to talk of his successor, and I observed that when he pronounced the name of Leone Duodecimo <6> he took off his cap.

Pius VI the 6 7th it seems was here during les Cent jours, <7> and gave his blessing to the people in the same church where we heard his funeral oration. The orator repeated with a great deal of emphasis his words “Soldio proteggerà i Genovesi.” <8> – The weather to-day is as gloomy & muddy as possible but we have had several very fine ones, quite like dear Nice. – I have been studying German a little for two or three days, one great difficulty seems to me to be how to find out of what declension a word is, which is I think as well as the declensions themselves still more difficult than in Latin. – Did you see any preparations at Paris for the trumphal entry of the Duke d’Angoulême, or the Duca del Trocadero, <9> to call him by his new title? I have seen in the newspapers that they have are finishing the Arc de Triomphe de l’Etoile on purpose, & that the King of Spain <10> has already exhibited the same ceremony at Madrid. After many difficulties we are at last going to our new house which was a convent of Carmelite nuns. – For my part I like Genoa very much, I think the views are magnificent and the narrow streets very pleasant, as one is not incommoded by carriages and can look at the shops on each side without trouble. I am very glad to hear that Maria <11> has been well all the time, and that you make Giovanni <12> feed her, – & shall be charmed to hear of your the safe arrival of all of you in London. – En attendant <13> this agreeable news, I wish you Goodbye. –

Your Affte Sister
Horatia Feilding

W H F Talbot Esqr
31 Sackville Street
London


Notes:

1. Town, Saône-et-Loire département, Bourgogne region, central France, on the Arroux River, southwest of Dijon. It was an important Roman city known for its Romanesque sculpture.

2. Pope Pius VII (1740–1823). He died on 20 August.

3. What a most glorious Pope.

4. She probably means forza, that is, strength. Fortezza, that is, fortress.

5. Of her Camillus and of her Regulus: Marcus Furius Camillus (d. 365), Roman statesman; Regulus, one of the mythical founders of Rome.

6. Leo XII (1760–1829), pope from 1823 to 1829. He suceeded Pius VII.

7. Hundred days, period in French history between 20 March 1815, the date on which Napoleon arrived in Paris after escaping from exile on Elba, and 8 July 1815, the date of the return of Louis XVIII to Paris.

8. She probably means ‘money will protect the Genoese’. Banking made Genoa rich and stable for 300 yrs from ca.1600.

9. Who had captured Cadiz [1823] in the Franco-Spanish War.

10. Ferdinand VII (1784–1833) reigned 1808 to 1833.

11. Probably a servant.

12. Giovanni Percij.

13. In expectation of.

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