[this is written on the same sheet as a note from Horatia: Doc. No: 01131]
Genoa
Sunday 30th Novr 1823
My Dearest
We have with our usual ill luck lit upon an English Merchant who has behaved like a Genoese! only think. We trusted him because he was English & therefore though it not necessary to have a written agreement & the consequence was our very near having no house at all. To day came a letter from Matilda <1> dated 17th November, in which She had heard nothing of you, at which we marvel much. I hope you will get a comfortable servant instead of Giovanni, <2> tho’ I think he would soon have learnt to pay for you in English Money, it is so simple compared with the coins of the Continent & he would learn English quicker at Penrice & Melbury <3> than in Sackville Street. <4>
Il Marchese Boijl <5> has begged to be admitted to pardon chez nous, <6> & professes himself profoundly ashamed of all the rude things Mrs B. <7> made him do. He says qu’il avoit perdu la tête but that now les années l’ont rendu sage, <8> being arrived at the great age of 3 & twenty.
God bless you Dearest
W H F Talbot Esqr
31 Sackville Street
London
Notes:
1. Matilda Feilding (1775-1849), WHFT's 'aunt' - sister of Charles Feilding, his stepfather.
2. Giovanni Percij, London servant to the Feildings and Talbots .
3. Penrice Castle and Penrice House, Gower, Glamorgan, 10 mi SW of Swansea: home of Christopher Rice Mansel Talbot and Melbury, Dorset: one of the Fox Strangways family homes; WHFT was born there.
4. 31 Sackville Street, London residence of the Feildings, often used as a London base by WHFT.
5. See Doc. No: 01084.
6. Among us.
7. Possibly Mrs Bligh. [See Doc. No: 01299].
8. That he had been crazy but that now age has made him wise.