Nice.
Sunday 21. April 1822.
My dear Henry,
I take the opportunity of to-day being Sunday to fulfil my promise and write to you; which you deserve indeed as you have written to me so soon. – We have seen nothing in our journey from Nismes that I can send you the description of in return for your account of the aqueduct, but I hope our journey to Genoa & Leghorn, &c. will be more interesting. We are going to leave Nice in a few days, if the wind and weather are favourable in a brig, with all our luggage. We shall stay at Genoa two or three days, and then re-embark in our brig, and go to Leghorn, and then (I believe) through Lucca to Florence. Poor Angioj <1> will be very much disappointed at our not staying at Genoa, as he expected we should do. Caroline <2> has got a cold, but she is better to-day, & I hope the change of air will do her good. I read the all about your overturn in your letter to Papa: <3> It is very odd that Mama <4> should never have been overturned before in all her travels, and that the only time it should have been on a very good wide road. It was very fortunate that nobody was hurt; as Mrs Gwynne & Pierre <5> were knocked off the box, they might have hurt themselves very much, and even you & Mama might have been bruised or worse. – It seems to us who are quietly staying in our house that you travel very slowly. I suppose you are now at Poitiers, or somewhere thereabouts. I wish you or Mama would write me where you were every day since you left us, as you used to do in Switzerland, in your tours. – I hope we will shall soon hear from her or you, soon, we were very much surprised at not [illegible deletion] receiving a letter this morning. – The few people who remain at Nice, are going away this week or the next, except Lady Leitrim <6> who is going to stay here till the middle of May, for Lord Clements’s <7> health. M. Richter is going Monday M. de Leyon Tuesday, M. de Ingenheim Thursday, ourselves Thursday or perhaps Wednesday, Miss Sherard, her nieces and Mr Fellowes <8> who is come back from Rome, at the end of this month. M. de Leyon is going through Turin to Crevelt, where his father lives. M. de Richter is going to Baden, and M. le Comte de Ingenheim through Floren Berlin to Florence. Miss Sherard is going to Genoa, and afterwards I don’t exactly know where. Lady Leitrim is going to England, by Paris. – We dined at her house last Thursday, with M. de Ingenheim & M. Lacroix. <9> –
The new regiment has a beautiful band, that plays much better than that of the Sardes. – If the wind continues to be as favourable as it is now, we will shall go to Genoa in 20 hours. However it would be very amusing to have a contrary wind that would blow us into Corsica, and give us an opportunity of seeing a little of that island. It would not be so amusing to be caught by a storm, or to be blown back into the port of Nice. – The weather is most beautiful now, and the wind quite fair. – We went the other day to see a frigate very far out at sea, called la Marie-Christine. The captain is an Englishman, his name is Captain Wright. He was very polite to us indeed, and the officers also, they showed us every thing in the ship, and gave us some wine & biscuits. The captain showed a very pretty little model of a ship, that he made himself. We saw the officers’ cabins, the gun-room, the hammocks, into which one of the men jumped to show us how they do it. We tasted some of the biscuits which the sailors eat, that were very hard and bitter. – Just as we got into our boat to go away, they unfurled all the ten sails, as if it were on purpose to show us how pretty the ship looked with all its sails. The captain had the politeness to take us back part of the way in the frigate. He said he would have been very happy to have taken us in it to Genoa, but that he could not, as he is obliged to cruise before Nice. – Good-bye, my dear Henry, give my best love to Mama. If I find any curious flowers, I will keep them to shew to you in a little book Papa has given me. – I hope the next time I will shall to write you a more amusing letter.
In the mean time, believe y me
your affectionate sister
Horatia Feilding
Mons.
Mons W. H. F. Talbot
Poste Restante
a Paris
Notes:
1. See Doc. No: 01116.
2. Caroline Augusta Edgcumbe, née Feilding, Lady Mt Edgcumbe (1808–1881); WHFT’s half-sister.
3. Rear Admiral Charles Feilding (1780–1837), Royal Navy; WHFT’s step-father.
4. Lady Elisabeth Theresa Feilding, née Fox Strangways, first m Talbot (1773–1846), WHFT’s mother.
5. Mrs Gwynne (d. winter 1841/1842), lady’s maid, cook and housekeeper to Elisabeth Feilding and Pierre, servant.
6. Mary Clements, Lady Leitrim.
7. Nathaniel Clements, 2nd Earl of Leitrim (1768–1854).
8. See Doc. No: 01525.
9. P Lacroix, British Consulate, Nice.