Castleford, ^<1>
Vernal Equinox, ^<2> 1816.

My Dear Mamma,

I see that the Income Tax ^<3> is lost by a large majority. I do not suppose that Ministers exerted all their influence, for although they did not like to give up their project without a division, yet I should think they would be afraid to irritate the country, if they carried it. What do the people say in London? Are they very triumphant? What Taxes does M^r V. ^<4> mean to propose? -

I am glad you liked my devises. When you have found out my charade, ^<5> I will send you some more. The siege is by no means as famous as those of Troy & Tyre; ^<6> indeed, I should not have sent it to you if you were not so fond of history. - It happened between 4 & 500 AC. Now you ought to guess it. - I think all the newly created peers have wretched titles - Niddry! ^<7> - Pray whence came Lord Wellington's title? ^<8> Has he or his family any property in Wellington? I see the Indian Juggler has killed himself in eating a sword: - and that some wise philosopher has revived animal magnetism, which I thought had long ago died a natural death. What has become of Mess^rs Gall & Spurzheim? ^<9> - I think the race between the drops of rain very good, but I have seen it before. - Lord Erskine's ^<10> Epigram on Walter Scott appeared in the Manchester Volunteer under the title of A GRUB STREET SQUIB,^<11> you may tell him of it - in order that he may vindicate his town residence. You told me nothing of Christopher^<12> - I have in flower a beautiful pot of purple Saxifrage. I advise you to buy such another for Car. & Hor. ^<13> in Covent Garden market, to give them an early taste for horticulture - You do not answer my question as to when you intend my holidays to commence; I suppose in a fortnight, or three weeks - I have advanced in history only seven years since I wrote last. - I am doing Algebraic fractions -

Y^r Aff^te Son
W. H. F. Talbot

their, [text missing]^<14> family at Penrice ^<15> coming to [text missing] - I thought to have heard of their arrival a full week ago - I see the Pss. Charlotte ^<16> has been clambering up ships sides like a squirrel - What folly in making Ferdinand ^<17> a knight of the Garter, and in Lord Cochrane ^<18> printing charges against L^d Ellenborough ^<19> - Do you think "La Dama prudente" ^<20> a good play - It happened to come first -

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Notes:

1. Castleford, Yorkshire, 10 mi SE of Leeds, where WHFT went to school from 1815-1816.

2. The date (near 21 March in the northern hemisphere) when night and day are nearly the same length and Sun crosses the celestial equator moving northward. Vernal means spring; equinox means equal night.

3. He refers to the 1816 abolition of the property or income tax. [See Doc. No: 00684, and Doc. No: 00687].

4. Nicholas Vansittart, 1^st Baron Bexley (1766-1851), British politician. He dealt with the problems of economic adjustment that followed the end of the Napoleonic Wars. [See Doc. No: 00684, and Doc. No: 00687].

5. See Doc. No: 00683.

6. Seige of Troy (ca.1192-1183), and Seige of Tyre (332).

7. Baron Niddry of Niddry, created in 1814 as a subsidiary title of the Earls of Hopetoun.

8. Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington (1769-1852), was in command of the forces which defeated Napoleon. He took his title, Viscount Wellington of Wellington and Talavera, from Wellington in Somerset in 1809, and later became Duke of Wellington. He did have an estate in the area.

9. Franz Joseph Gall (1758-1828), German-French anatomist and physiologist, and Johann Gaspar Spurzheim (1776-1832), German physician. They collaborated on scientific theories and were the founders of phrenology.

10. Thomas Erskine, 1^st Baron (1750-1823). [See Doc. No: 00681].

11. The specific reference has not been traced. Samuel Johnson, in his Dictionary, explained that Grub Street was 'originally the name of a street...much inhabited by writers of small histories, dictionaries, and temporary poems, whence any mean production is called grubstreet.' He spoke from experience, for Johnson resided on Grub Street (near Moorgate, in London) for the first part of his career. The pejorative term continues as a reference to hack writers.

12. Christopher Rice Mansel Talbot (1803-1890), immensely wealthy landowner, mathematician & politician; WHFT's Welsh cousin.

13. Caroline Augusta Edgcumbe, née Feilding, Lady Mt Edgcumbe (1808-1881); WHFT's half-sister, and Henrietta Horatia Maria Gaisford, née Feilding (1810-1851), WHFT's half-sister.

14. Text torn away under seal.

15. Penrice Castle and Penrice House, Gower, Glamorgan, 10 mi SW of Swansea: home of Christopher Rice Mansel Talbot.

16. Princess Charlotte Augusta (1796-1817).

17. Ferdinand, Archduke of Austria, Knight of the Garter, later the Emperor Ferdinand I.

18. Thomas Cochrane (1775-1860), 10^th Earl of Dundonald, British naval officer. In 1814, he was found guilty of fraud on the stock market, expelled from the navy and parliament and sentenced to a year's imprisonment.

19. Edward Law, 1^st Baron Ellenborough (1750-1818), English judge. He sentenced Cochrane to a year's imprisonment, an hour's detention in the pillory and a fine of £1,000. On 5 March 1816, Cochrane presented to the House of Commons thirteen charges against Ellenborough, for his injustice and misrepresentation.

20. La Dama prudente, The Discreet Wife, comedy written in 1750 by Carlo Goldoni (1707-1793), Italian dramatist and great reformer of Italian comedy.