Cambridge <1>
26th Decr 1819
I was very glad to see your handwriting again, I wish I saw it a little oftener. Why don't you let me know where your residence in Paris is? I don't like directing to that place in Sackville St <2> because I am afraid they may forget to forward it. I wish you would send me your opinions on politics and things in general, for Cambridge is rather dull, as you may suppose, and your letters would enliven me. My chief solace is the Quarterly Review; for the Edinburgh, <3> at least all I have yet read, is I think very poor. There are however several of my friends here who are going to take their degrees. Edward Murray, & Worsley <4> who I think will be high, and I am very anxious about it. There are only four or five of the Scholars in residence now, so we have very hard work; for you must know that it is the duty of the scholars, in consideration of the emoluments they enjoy, to read grace to the Fellows after dinner & supper, which keeps one waiting a long while. The Grace is in Latin, & curious enough, mentioning Henry the eighth, "Henricus Stanton, <5> & our other benefactors." The winter is rather severe, much more so than the two last. I pity the people who are in Baffin's Bay. <6> The proceedings in Parliament have very little interest with me, the Ministers have it so entirely their own way. Does any of the Whigs mean to move distinctly for an enquiry into the Manchester affair? <7> The article in the Quarterly about the Cape, seems to be written by Mr Barrow. <8> I should think an English ploughboy would not much like the thoughts of having to deal with the lions of Caffraria. <9> -
Do you ever notice how bright Mars is now, of a night? I looked at him with my glass, and saw him round like the Moon. This requires a considerable magnifying power, for a small glass does not shew any disk. Mr Bonney <10> & his sister have been here for a week. The weather is now very severe & it is no joke going to Chapel in the snow to r[ead] the lessons at seven o'clock in the morning.
Have you read Ivanhoe? <11> I have no time to read it now & have merely gazed upon the outside. By the report of all who read it, it is very good. My love to Mr F. & my sisters <12> - I have heard nothing of Penrice <13> lately, they don't answer my letters. Tell me what they are doing. Also what you are doing and going to do, it is strange how long since I heard from you - I am in excellent health, rather tired of reading Greek, &
your affte Son
W. H. F. Talbot
The Lady Elisabeth Feilding
2 Sackville St London
To be forwarded to Paris
Notes:
1. Trinity College, Cambridge.
2. 2 Sackville Street, occaisional London base of WHFT.
3. The Quarterly Review was established by John Murray in 1809 as a Tory rival to the Whig supporting Edinburgh Review, a quarterly magazine founded in October 1802 by Francis Jeffrey, Sydney Smith and Henry Brougham.
4. Rev Edward Murray (1798-1852), author & inventor, and Rev Thomas Worsley (1797-1885), theologian & Master of Downing College, Cambridge.
5. Henry VIII, King of England (1509-1547), and probably Hervey de Stanton, Chief Justice and Chancellor of the Exchequer to Edward II. In 1324, he founded Michaelhouse College, Cambridge.
6. He probably refers to John Ross and Edward Sabine, explorers of the Northwest Passage in 1818. See 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). [Also see Doc. No: 00848].
7. A reference to the Peterloo Massacre in Manchester in August 1819. The magistrates alarmed by the size of a radical meeting held on St Peter's Fields ordered the Manchester yeomenry to arrest the speakers, but the yeomenry made a general attack on the crowd, injuring at least five hundred people and killing at least eleven.
8. Sir John Barrow (1764-1848), geographer, and Secretary of the Admiralty. He promoted arctic exploration. He wrote 195 articles in the Quarterly Review. Cape Barrow, and Barrow Strait were named in his honor. The cape mentioned here is probably the Cape of Good Hope: during the Napoleonic wars, Brown accompanied the British military governor to the Cape as his private secretary.
9. Caffraria, Eastern Cape region of South Africa. See Benjamin Stout, Cape of Good Hope and its dependencies ... Likewise a luminous and affecting detail of Captain Stout's travels through the deserts of Caffraria and the Christian settlements, to the Cape (London: Edwards and Knibb, 1820).
10. Thomas Kaye Bonney (1782-1863), Archdeacon of Leicester.
11. Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832), novelist and poet, first published Ivanhoe in 1819.
12. Rear Admiral Charles Feilding (1780-1837), Royal Navy; WHFT's step-father, and his daughters 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.
13. Penrice Castle and Penrice House, Gower, Glamorgan, 10 mi SW of Swansea: home of Christopher Rice Mansel Talbot.