[this is unsigned, which is unusual in WHFT's letters to his mother (although definitely not vice versa!) but appears to be complete on one sheet]
Sackville St <1>
Friday night Dec 17th 1824
My Dear Mother,
I hope you received a letter <2> I wrote from Dover the evening of the 11th I recollected in time to send a note to Richard by the guard of the Dover mail that night, & I found a comfortable fire in Sackville St accordingly. Tell Mr F. <3> Richards boy <4> is intelligent & will suit him. Mrs Montgomerie <5> answered my letter today by calling herself, but I was out & she left word M. <6> was better & would be quite well in a few days; without saying where his lodgings were, or replying to my enquiring whether I might visit him. I mean to go down to Dorsetshire by the Magnet on Monday morning. Charry <7> is at Bath with the Ford's, [sic] all the rest at Moreton. <8> It was her own desire to be left behind, but I wish they had not let her as the gaiety of Moreton would have done far more good than Bath waters.
Saturday
Mrs Montgomerie had the goodness to call again this morning, and it is arranged I am to go to Brompton tomorrow. She told me M. had taken a bottle of laudanum by mistake & that was the cause of his illness. She said all manner of kind things about you and Mr F. and how much she had heard of your amiableness from George. <9>
I had a letter from Giovanni <10> today very dismal and full of misfortunes, I am very sorry for him but what can I do. He had lost one napoleon already before I left Paris, in a chink in the floor. Has he found that. Did you ever hear Ly Sandon <11> had a daughter, born at Lucca last Septr
Saturday Night
I have been to Drury Lane. We had a Comic Opera. Miss Stephens sung charmingly but the dialogue was beneath contempt. It was the production of Mr Thos Dibdin <12> who informed us repeatedly [illegible deletion] (a propos de bottes) <13> that British sailors never ran away from the enemy; upon which the Galleries applauded, as if the idea was quite new to them.
Sunday
I found Mrs Montgomerie alone, she sent for M. & in the meanwhile told me he was quite well. He put on his hat & walked some distance from his lodgings, so you see he is really getting well. He looked ill but I was more struck with his melancholy & even gloomy manner. I brought him a large bundle of engravings to look at from Carlsruhe; he turned them over with indifference except the lithography of his own drawing which interested him[.] He said the artist had done it justice, & then correcting himself, more than justice. I am inclined to think he will be willing to accompany me back to Paris. Mrs M seemed to me very affectionate to him but a woman of little information. She admired all my engravings without distinction, but had never heard of lithography, thought the Danube was in Switzerland, &c so that I am afraid he is a little dull at Brompton - It is only ¾ of a mile from Hyde Park Corner.
Lady Elisabeth Feilding
Hotel de la Terrasse
Rue Rivoli
Paris
Notes:
1. 31 Sackville Street, London residence of the Feildings, often used as a London base by WHFT.
2. See Doc. No: 01222.
3. Rear Admiral Charles Feilding (1780-1837), Royal Navy; WHFT's step-father.
4. Probably a reference to Plumbeus. [See Doc. No: 01223].
5. The wife of the Rev George Stephen Molyneux Montgomerie (1790-1850), close friend of Talbot family, artist, Rector of Garboldisham, near Thetford, Norfolk.
6. Rev George Stephen Molyneux Montgomerie (1790-1850), artist, Norwich.
7. Charlotte Louisa 'Charry' Traherne, née Talbot (1800-1880), WHFT's cousin.
8. Moreton, Dorset: home of the Frampton family.
9. Probably George Finch (1794-1870), JP & MP.
10. Giovanni Percij.
11. Lady Francis Sandon, wife of 2nd Earl of Harrowby and Viscount Sandon.
12. Thomas Dibdin (1771-1841), English dramatist and song-writer. [See Doc. No: 00822].
13. Turning to quite another subject, without rhyme or reason.