Galatea <1> Southampton
August 14
My dear Henry
I am very sorry I did not receive your letter <2> sooner, it would have given me so much pleasure to have seen you during the Regatta – which took place on the 4th & 5th the weather however was dreadful, so much so that it was impossible to communicate with the shore, and in consequence I had five friends sleeping on the hard boards, who had come on board in the morning to see the race, amongst them were Harry Strangways, Henry & Ed Murray <3> fortunately the wind abated during the night, or the consequences would have been unpleasant, as the same storm which prevented us from going ashore, prevented the cook from coming on board. I am now come here to undergo some alterations preparatory to a cruize in the bay of Biscay, which I meditate. I intend to visit Brest, Douarnenez Bay and if the weather is favourable Corunna – I return by way of Cork. I shall lay up the Galatea in ordinary this winter, as I find it impossible to fit her out for a foreign voyage this year – What I shall do with myself in the interim I do not at all know. I have sold all my horses under the idea I was going abroad, pray let me know your plans for the winter.
Your observations on my theories of ship-building are hardly fair, as all my theories are deduced from experiments made by myself, and never far from that most fallacious of doctrines the theory of resistance – it is certainly very true that we cannot tell why a top spins, nor why a kite flies, neither can we tell why a stone falls to the ground. At all events my theories in the instance of the Galatea, have turned out very fortunate, she unites in a singular degree the qualities of speed & stability
I have just been reading Lord Por[chester’s]<4> new Poem, the Moor – I like part of it very much, but I cannot help thinking he’ll scarcely “get a man to wade thro’ his first interminable Canto”, he appears very fond of alliteration, and many of his lines require reading over several times before their import is clearly understood. There are parts however which are very beautiful –
Direct to me Galatea Yacht, P.O. Cowes
Your Affte Cousin
C R M Talbot.
W. H. F. Talbot Esqr
Malvern
Worcestershire
Clifton <5>
Bristol
Notes:
1. Christopher Talbot’s yacht.
2. Letter not located.
3. Possibly the Rev Henry Fox Strangways (1793–1860), rector of Rewe, Devon; younger son of the Rev the Hon Charles Redlynch Fox Strangways; Henry Frampton (1804-1879); Rev Edward Murray (1798–1852), author & inventor.
4. Henry John George Herbert, Lord Porchester, later 3rd Earl of Carnarvon (1800–1849). Text torn away under seal.
5. Readdressed in an another hand.