Trinity College, Cambridge <1>
May 19th 1819.
I find that we are not going to assemble in the Isle of Wight until about six weeks after the vacation has commenced, so that it will suit me much better to go and see you at present: else I shall lose all the tutorizing. You must write & stop me directly, or I shall have set out, as we are at liberty to go after the 4th of June. and I have nothing to do here. Capt Sabine <2> of the artillery has published an excellent pamphlet <3> about the late voyage of discovery. It is directed against Capt. Ross, <4> who has treated him very unfairly in his book. <5> Capt. Ross has advertised his reply, what he will say I cannot think, as I never read a pamphlet which appeared to me so unanswerable. - what you say about the beauty of the spring in France, is equally applicable to England: for although perhaps it manifests itself at Cambridge as little as at any spot which could be mentioned, yet still I never saw the trees of all kinds so full of flower. The hedges are all thickly covered with blossom, as white as snow: nor have I seen a single blighted leaf. Pray tell Mr Feilding <6> I find in my last bill from the tutor, this item
"Arrears Ap. 7. 1819 . . . . . £31. 11. 5"
I thought it had been paid, which I should be glad to know before I pay it again - I remember Mr Feilding scratched out most of [illegible deletion] the bill Pray answer this. -
I get a much better dinner now, at the Scholar's table.<7> I send you on the opposite page, some verses which I did in the examination for scholarships: - They are a translation of a fragment of Simonides. <8> You must make some allowances for them, as I had nothing but pen, ink, & paper; and was obliged to make as much haste as I could, having a very long piece of Xenophon <9> to translate after. - The metre is very troublesome, owing to the double rhyme.
'Tis Jove, my son, that since the world began
Has reigned the arbiter of all below:
It is not given to the mind of man
The hidden destinies of Fate to know.
[Who does]<10> not dream, by Hope delusive buoy'd,
[For] joys delay'd - yet ever promis'd near?
Who does not trust, for pleasures unalloy'd,
For health, for riches, to the new born year?
Yet - This the terrors of relentless Age
Await, the heralds of disease and pain:
This sinks the victim of a freeman's rage
Untimely stretched upon the bloody plain.
Over
These shall entomb the Ocean's watery void,
Their vessel frail by stormy tempests riven;
This impious action! by Himself destroy'd
Shall rush unsummon'd to the bar of Heaven.
Cease then to mourn this jarring scene of strife,
This conflict still of mingling hopes and fears,
Cease - nor the woes, the certain woes of Life
In vain deplore with unavailing tears. -
Give my love to Mr Feilding & Car. & Hor. <11>
Yr Affte Son
W. H. Talbot -
Lady Elisabeth Feilding
No 2 Sackville St
London
To be forwarded immediately
Notes:
1. Trinity College, Cambridge.
2. Sir Edward Sabine (1788-1883), geophysicist, astronomer, and explorer. In 1818, he travelled as the Royal Artillery expedition's astronomer to find the North-West Passage.
3. Edward Sabine, An explanation of Captain Sabine's Remarks on the late voyage of discovery to Baffin's Bay (London: J. Murray, 1819).
4. Sir John Ross (1777-1856), explorer. He led his first expedition in search of the Northwest Passage in 1818; the mission consisted of going around the extreme northeast coast of America and of sailing to Bering Strait.
5. John Ross, A voyage of discovery made under the orders of the Admiralty, in His Majesty's ships Isabella and Alexander, for the purpose of exploring Baffin's Bay, and enquiring into the probability of a north-west passage (London: 1819).
6. Rear Admiral Charles Feilding (1780-1837), Royal Navy; WHFT's step-father.
7. WHFT advanced by competitive exam from being a Commoner to the limited but largely honorary position of Scholar.
8. Simonides (556?-468), Lyric poet.
9. Xenophon (430-350 BC), Greek historian.
10. Text torn away under seal.
11. 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.