18 Decr
My dear Henry
It made me quite happy to think of you at Melbury <1> among your relations & People who love you, & to know that one at least of the Family was enjoying himself at that delightful place – I was much gratified too at your excellent account of my sister <2> & that you saw her before she went to Burley <3> – Thank you for the trouble you had about the Box – I wrote the day I recd your letter to Richd <4> to pay the duties &c as you advise – yesterday I had a letter to say the French ambassador <5> would now do the thing if the case was only sent to Calais & brought back, one way or other before my letter can get to England I conclude Richard will have settled but certainly if I had not been deceived by Mr Freeborn <6> about the amount of duties I never would have troubled Ly G <7> or the ambassador about it – [illegible deletion] a great object too was not to have it unpacked, but as that it seems must be done & the duty is so little the bother & fuss it occasions is not repaid by the advantage. – We go on very comfortably now & the House has plenty of Rooms, one for you when you come – our weather most beautiful. Baron de Zach <8> dined with us yesterday, which I am told is a great Favor, he was very agreeable, & very kind in his enquiries about you – he seems quite interested about you, & is “very anxious that you should take up some decided pursuit in which you would be sure to distinguish yourself”, & is “afraid you divide your attention & thoughts among too many” – he is a very sensible man & I give you his opinion, which is indeed very much my own – I think it is Time you should propose to yourself some pursuit, some great object in life –– what it should be, your own inclination, judgement & knowledge of your own talents (far above my means of estimating) must decide – You have the opinion of two distinguished men Fazakerly & Ward <9>, (as applied to you) against the House of Commons – they both thinking “it would be a waste of your abilities” – to say nothing of the difficulty of obtaining & retaining a seat – whatever you choose I am sure of your always being to your Mother sisters <10> & myself most kind & affectionate – loved and esteemed by us & all who know you – but as God has highly gifted you, so it would rather be most gratifying to all us who value your reputation that you should by your exertions place it where it should be – I could not make de Zach believe in the truth of Young & Champollion discoveries <11> a Dr Major[?] a clever Physician here who met him at Dinner, but Mojor is to take me to a man Friend of his learned in these matters to talk it over – he says that the idea of the Hieroglyphics being letters is not new, but that though it may answer for some words one is soon stopped – I conclude admitting the Discovery to be solid it can only serve for those inscriptions in Latin or Greek when they made use of Egyptian characters – do we know anything of this language? – We have had Iturbide <12> for a couple of days, he sailed for London – which seems again becoming what it was & always ought to be the retreat of the unfortunate. I suspect that the Sainte Alliance & Ferdinand <13> together have prevailed on the Grand Duke to send him off – but what becomes of his Income which was granted conditionally – residence in Italy being specified – he had however been long enough a King, to adopt a few legitimate ideas, & so has possessed himself of a quantity of Diamonds – We heard yesterday that Ferdinand had turned off Saez[?] & that [illegible] & declared an Amnesty but I doubt it. The state of Spain however is far from satisfactory & fear may make them do what honesty could not.
Ever yrs my love
C F
W. H. F Talbot Esqre
Inghilterra
31 Sackville Street
London
Notes:
1. Melbury, Dorset: one of the Fox Strangways family homes; WHFT was born there.
2. Possibly Augusta Sophia Hicks, née Feilding, sister of WHFT’s step-father.
3. Burley, Stamford.
4. Richard, a servant.
5. See Doc. No: 01118.
6. See Doc. No: 01130.
7. Lady Glengall, mother of Lady Charlotte Butler, who was to marry Kit Talbot in December 1835. [See Doc. No: 01118].
8. Franz Xaver, Baron von Zach (1754–1832), Hungarian astronomer.
9. John Nicholas Fazakerley (1787–1852), MP, and John William Ward, 1st Earl Dudley (d. 1833).
10. Lady Elisabeth Theresa Feilding, née Fox Strangways, first m Talbot (1773–1846), WHFT’s mother, 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.
11. Jean-François Champollion (1790–1832), historian, linguist, founder of scientific Egyptology and decipherer of hieroglyphics and Thomas Young (1773–1829), English physicist who attempted to decipher the Rosetta Stone. There was a early controversy about not crediting Young for his earlier discoveries: Young had established that foreign names had to be represented phonetically.
12. Augustin de Iturbide (1783–1824), Emperor of Mexico (May 1822–March 1823). Upon his abdication he was permitted to live in Leghorn and given a pension, but on returning to Mexico (via London) he was executed.
13. He refers to the Holy Alliance, the 1815 treaty between the Tsar of Russia, the Emperor of Austria and the King of Prussia and Ferdinand VII (1784–1833), King of Spain (1808–1833). In 1822 the Holy Alliance delegated France to undertake military intervention in Spain and to restore Ferdinand to power.