January 27th
6. P.M.
Jan. 30
San Remo
Monday
February 3d 1868
My dear Papa,
Many thanks for your most kind letter which I received yesterday. It arrived very quickly: only 8 days since I had last written to you, and after your rather long silence it was most welcome, but it is far more satisfactory to get one long letter than several very short ones. We are very glad that you approve of our plans, and hope you will soon make out yours and join us in some interesting place, for it cannot be good for you to stay so long in such a puddle of water as you describe d Lacock to be just now. You must indeed stand in great need of a thorough drying! – but if you cannot manage to come out here before we leave I do not think you will have cause to regret it much; I am quite sure you would not attempt twice to ascend the steep rocky paths like rough staircases which form the only walks here, and all the flowers, except anemones, seem to take pleasure in growing in the most inaccessible places. We have now blue hyacinths, & white periwinkles, but in no great numbers, a few lilac anemones, as yet rather stunted in growth, and the other day the first nacissus [sic] were brought home. A small kind, pure white, whit with eight or nine blossoms on a cluster, very sweet – but they have only been found in one little spot yet. Star of Bethlehem has also been seen nearly open, but in general things are backward. The almond trees in the garden, which ought to have been in flower a month ago, are just beginning to blossom. The weather continues fine and pleasant, with frequent and rather cold winds, and occasionally clouds overspread the sky for a few hours, but never resolve themselves into actual rain – We have not had a drop for three weeks, and the dust on the single road is very annoying. Mama <1> is looking forward to a change of scene with much pleasure; the idea of moving is always more agreable to her than the actual fact, but we shall not at any rate leave San Remo before the middle of the month, and much will depend on weather. Bayer <2> says we shall not want the passport as we are not going into the Roman States.
Mama thinks that if you add Bologna and Milan to the names you suggested for the letter of credit (which were San Remo, Pisa, Florence & Aix les Bains) it would be safer, as it is better to have too many than too few. We greatly approve of your extended plan of going to Bolonga, Milan and Como, which latter will be charming towards the end of the April. I safely got the letter you forwarded, from Riccarton – Bessie Craig <3> says Edinburgh is exceedingly gay. They seem to have had altogether an exceptional winter in Scotland – not one fall of snow sufficient to cover the ground a single day, and scarcely any bad weather until the terrific gale of ten days ago. Is it not curious how the climates have turned topsy-turvy? I have heard at last from Ernestine <4> that they have given up coming to Cannes, and remain quietly at Cotehele; <5> Charlie <6> was on his way home after accomplishing the tour of Italy, that is to say Naples & Rome. You will be sorry to hear that Mamie <7> has sprained her hand badly, luckily the left one, by a fall in the garden, where she caught her foot in something. It is now bandaged up and I fear it will be sometime before she can use it again.
At the top of my paper I send you a picture of how the moon appeared, when three days old, between two brillant [sic] planets – are they Venus and Jupiter? the biggest we took to be Venus. On the 30th the same planets got close together, the moon having travelled ever so far up in the sky. What a place this is for Astronomy: the atmosphere so magnificently clear that the moon is sharply visible when only a mere thread. Ela <8> is diligently painting flowers to obtain the names from you some day, and I have got a good collection of sketches of the town &c.
I wish we could acclimatize Sparrmanaia Africana at Lacock: it is a precious bush, having kept in full flower the whole time we have eng been here, and still looking as fresh as ever. Mama, I dare say, will be writing soon, and in the meantime sends her love, and so does everybody.
And so good bye, dear Papa, for the present –
Your affection daughter
Rosamond
Notes:
1. Constance Talbot, née Mundy (1811–1880), WHFT’s wife.
2. M J Bayer, courier.
3. Lady Elizabeth Sarah Gibson-Craig, née Vivian (d. 1895), married Sir William Gibson-Craig, 2nd Baronet of Riccarton, Midlothian in 1840.
4. Ernestine Emma Horatia Edgcumbe (1843-1925), WHFT’s niece.
5. Cotehele, Cornwall: ancient house, seat of the Earl of Mt Edgcumbe, now a National Trust Property
6. Charles Earnest Edgcumbe (1838–1915), JP, WHFT’s nephew.
7. Amélina Petit De Billier, ‘Mamie’, ‘Amandier’ (1798–1876), governess and later close friend of the Talbot family [See Amélina's journal].
8. Ela Theresa Talbot (1835–1893), WHFT’s 1st daughter.