Genoa
4. November
My Dear Henry
We are still in all our troubles about getting a house & Mr F. <1> vexing himself that he came upon an uncertainty, because it is too far to go back & no prospect whatever of any thing like a comfortable house, even the palaces (of which not many are to be let) have hardly any fireplaces, & are very dark, evidently built against the Sun, & very few with any prospect of the Sea.
Lord Dudley <2> arrived yesterday from Paris, by the way of Lyons & Nice. He came along the Corniche & sent his carriage in a felucca, <3> which is not yet arrived & I should not wonder if it was cast away, for there is a most violent storm which has lasted these two days, ever since the D. of Devonshire <4> embarked on board the Euryalus, <5> as I wrote you word. I expect to hear he is shipwrecked on the coast of Corsica or blown over to Africa. Unlucky for his first voyage, & he was so delighted with the thoughts of sailing on the blue Mediterranean!
Lord Dudley is going on to Rome, where there will be quite an accumulation of pleasant people this winter. I confess I envy him.
He enquired much for you, & thinks he may have passed you on the road without knowing it, but I rather think he left Lyons before you could possibly have got near it. We wonder more than ever at not having heard any thing from you, but it must be owing to the floods which have again made the roads impassable. Since I began this letter we have in despair taken an apartment at the Albergo della Villa with which Mr F. is not very contented because it is dear, & not very comfortable. However it has space & looks towards the Sea & it is the only one they would let for less than 3 Months. Lord & Lady Belfast <6> are just come. There are no other English here & they are going to Rome. Lord Dudley is a treasure while he stays & afterwards I see no prospect of any society. I hope Maria has not been in your way on the journey, & that you have had fine weather for an open carriage. I wonder where you were on the 30 & 31st October We had a violent storm both those days with torrents of rain. Lady Georgiana Neville has a pretty house on the hill beyond the Acqua Sola & she is going in a few days to Florence but that would not hold us. She has been here 5 months & gives a most untempting account of Genoa, indeed she seems quite disgusted with it. Angioj thanks his Stars that he did not take a house for us, now he sees how difficult it is for us even to suit ourselves. In fact a foreigner never thinks of many indispensible [sic] things to an English family. When he sees our dissatisfactions he says “Ah non sono sventure questo, ma passa tempi dei Viaggiatori.” <7> However to us they seem disgrazie <8> hard to bear after that excellent house at Varese.
You had better think twice before you leave Giovanni behind because he knows your ways now better than a new one
W. H. Fox Talbot Esqr
31. Sackville Street
London
Inghilterra
Notes:
1. Rear Admiral Charles Feilding (1780–1837), Royal Navy; WHFT’s step-father.
2. John William Ward, 1st Earl Dudley (d. 1833).
3. Small Mediterranean vessel.
4. Sir William George Spencer Cavendish, 6th Duke of Devonshire (1790–1858).
5. British frigate. [See Doc. No: 01299].
6. Probably George Augustus Chichester, 2nd Marquess of Donegall and Earl of Belfast (1769–1844), and his wife Anne Douglas-Hamilton.
7. Ah these are not misfortunes, but Travellers’ pastimes, diversions.
8. Misfortunes.