Oakfield <1>
July 12th
My dear Papa,
How provoking that writing Spanish when one is not used to it, takes so much time, for Mamie <2>and I had planned a most glorious joint letter, and there the cruel clock has just struck two for lunch, and before three the post must go, so I must content myself with adding these few lines to her letter to thank you for your’s received yesterday from Cambo. <3>It must be a pretty place, especially with the advantage of such glorious weather, but you must indeed find the heat trying, and going out impossible in the middle of the day – for we cannot do it even here, especially these last two days, when there has been but little air, and an oppressive thick vapour, with a hot sun piercing through at times, unlike the usual bracing Cumberland air. All your letters have been duly received and Mama <4> and Ela <5>send their thanks. Mama wrote to you on Monday from here – and I must try and send you a real letter tomorrow, as it will be the 13th the last day you allow us to direct to Vittoria. <6> We were so tired on first on first arriving and so busy ever since, that it has made us all more idle than we ought to have been, but I hope we shall mend in future.
And now goodbye, dear Papa, for they all <sic> growing impatient down stairs and calling us –
Your affectionate daughter
Rosamond.
Notes:
1. Near Dunfermline in Scotland.
2. Amélina Petit De Billier, ‘Mamie’, ‘Amandier’ (1798–1876), governess and later close friend of the Talbot family [See Amélina's journal ].
3. Cambo-les-Bains, France (south-west of Bayonne). [See Doc. No: 08148].
4. Constance Talbot, née Mundy (1811–1880), WHFT’s wife.
5. Ela Theresa Talbot (1835–1893), WHFT’s 1st daughter.
6. See Doc. No: 08149.