Florence
Saturday June 11th
My dear Papa,
As I don’t know whether the Post to Milan takes one day or two I write you a line today to tell you that we are still here.. We had intended leaving this morning but Mamie <1> did not feel well enough, so we have put off till Monday. Then we really do hope to go as this house is on too-expensive a footing to allow one to live comfortably in a small way, although I suppose we ought to consider them liberal to allow us to keep possession of the Drawing-room and two bed-rooms, besides the maid’s room, for twelve francs at day, in consideration of the house being almost entirely empty.
The Liddels took their departure yesterday morning. Our maid, Vittoria Pettini is going, I think, to turn out a success. She is very obliging and handy and extremely bustling, running about all day on the slightest pretext of a message, and coming back in no time. She seems quite pleased in having to begin her duties by being a garde malade, and will be of the greatest possible use to us at the Baths of Lucca, as she knows the place and people extremely well, and has even some of her family living there.
We had a letter from Tilly <2> yesterday. They are all quite well, and had just returned from a visit at Craig-darroch, which she enjoyed much. They have taken their cottage at Port William from the 1st July. She wrote on the day she got Mama’s <3> letter, and before that she had not thought that our plans where settled. The idea does not seem to have pleased her, quite at first, but not knowing the country and never having travelled at all, she cannot of course realise how impossible it is to feel in the slightest degree isolated or get into any kind of difficulty in these regions, where one is so surrounded by one’s countrymen, and can make almost more friends than one wants!
Galignani <4> did not come here yesterday – we shall find him I suppose at L. Baths, but the Italie gives one all the news, that of France very detailed, and not, so far, very satisfactory. Yet the riots, Do not seem to have been really serious and the Police is strong and wide awake, so it is to be hoped peace will soon be completely restored. If you have the same weather as we today, but not too hot and somewhat cloudy, you will have had a pleasant drive to Sestri, and I hope Mama will not feel overtired. I expect to hear from Ela <5> an account of the journey, and we shall enquire for letters immediately on arrival at Lucca B. Should you however prefer writing here, for the chance of our being not yet gone, you need not fear that the letter will be lost, as they are very careful about forwarding.
No other letters have come for any of us, so I suppose none need be expected now. Your telegram to Mama arrived barely half an hour after she was gone, and as she purposed sending you a message from Pisa you will have thought that was the answer to yours. It was really very acute of you to have suspected that hitch in the time table at Pisa, you know I for one wouldn’t believe it, and it really is too absurd not to have one later train to Spezzia in the course of the evening.
Good bye dear Papa, give my love to Mama & Ela. Mamie sends hers.
Your affectionate daughter
Rosamond.
Notes:
1. Amélina Petit De Billier, ‘Mamie’, ‘Amandier’ (1798–1876), governess and later close friend of the Talbot family [See Amélina's journal].
2. Matilda Caroline Gilchrist-Clark, ‘Tilly’, née Talbot (1839–1927), WHFT’s 3rd daughter.
3. Constance Talbot, née Mundy (1811–1880), WHFT’s wife.
4. Galignani’s Messenger, a newspaper that had a wide circulation among English residents on the Continent.
5. Ela Theresa Talbot (1835–1893), WHFT’s 1st daughter.