Harrow. <1>
Friday
My dear Father
I am now going to send you a bill-book. <2> I am in the 3rd remove of the fifth form. My master in school is Mr Rendall who is eccentric but a very good master. In mathematics I am no longer under Mr Steel, <3> but Mr Marrilier. He is a very old man and has been here no one knows how long. I believe that he [illegible deletion] is a Frenchman by birth but you could not tell that for he’s thouroughly Englishified. He knows all Euclid by heart. And the only difficult thing that some boys find with him is that he expects them to be as clever as himself. My master in German is Mons Berault[?]. You will see Trevelyan’s <4> name down for 3 prizes. A. A. Clive for the Bolguild[?] Medal. I have underlined all our house
You see Estcourt is now in the upper sixth, he is doing famously. In the head remove of the Fifth Form you will see Eyre who works hard, and got a good remove He was the boy who knows the Spedding’s <5> a little and lives in the south of Wiltshire. In the second remove of the fifth form you will see Rogers. He is the other fellow in my room. He is a good deal of a botanist as also his father who is in the Royal society <6> and knows so a good deal about Hampshire & Basingstoke has been at Devizes & heard of Mr Williams. <7> &c. has been in Cumberland and stayed at Portinscale. By the by I have found out from Rogers that Marshall who is left head of the 2nd Fifth is the son of Mr Marshall of Potterdale. in the 3rd fifth you see me at the bottom of the page. Mallock is in the 4th fifth.<8> Giles who has been placed in the 1st shell I have hopes of In the second fourth is Mr Legge who will very likely be a good cricketer
Goodbye dear Father Your Affectionate son
Charles Henry Talbot
Notes:
1. Harrow School: WHFT attended from 1811–1815 and his son Charles from 1855-1859.
2. A small blue book published each term providing essential information about all aspects of the School and a calendar of main events, fixtures etc.
3. Rev Thomas Henry Steel (1806–1881), tutor.
4. Thornton Roger Trevelyan, son of Thornton Raleigh Trevelyan (1820–1845), of Netherwitton Hall, Morpeth, attended Harrow 1857–1861.
5. Probably Thomas Storey Spedding (1800–1870), of Mirehouse, man of letters, and his wife, Frances Elizabeth, née Headlam (b. 1811).
6. Walter Francis Rogers was the son of John Rogers (1807–1867), who was elected to the Royal Society in 1839.
7. Rev James Augustus Williams, Charles's tutor.
8. Charles could have been friends with either of two sons of Charles Herbert Mallock (1802-1873) of Cockington Court, Torquay, whilst at Harrow. Charles Herbert Mallock (1840-1875), later a barrister, entered in 1854. Richard Mallock (1843-1900), later an MP, entered in 1858. Both left Harrow in 1859, the year of Charles Henry's departure.
9. Matilda Caroline Gilchrist-Clark, ‘Tilly’, née Talbot (1839–1927), WHFT’s 3rd daughter. The enclosure has not been found.