London
14th March 1826
You see I date anno domini <1> in case you should stay away nine years like William Bankes. <2> In that case I should endosser le costume d’un Mamelouk, <3> & track you on a Camel. I am better now, but was very bad the day you went. Si sapesti ô caro! quali angustie opprimano la mia anima, <4> you would give me great credit for having suppressed them. I received your letters <5> from Dover & Calais, which were all the comfort I could have, they have raised my spirits & enabled me to prepare for taking Caroline <6> to a ball to night at Lady Tankerville’s. <7> The Heavens have certainly hitherto smiled upon your journey, I never saw such fine weather as we have had every day since you went, & by the time it changes I hope you will be beyond the reach of our cloudy Skies & enjoying yourself in happier climes. a letter from William <8> which came the day after you went, advises us not to cross Westphalia in which he says the roads are a deep sand, the Inns bad, & nothing to see, & that the whole tract comprises every defect & désagrement <9> with which German travelling used to be reproached 50 years ago. I am sorry I did not let Lady Harriot Galwey <10> know of your approaching departure, her eldest son is at Corfu, & she might [illegible deletion] have had something or at least a message to send to him.
I have seen Sir C <11>– who I am now convinced will do all he can to hinder Isabella & Emma <12> from coming to town this year. One of his arguments was that it would be an awkward thing for them to be in London if the Dissolution took place & he was forced to go & keep open House at Margam. <13> I did not think he had been so selfish. Mr M. <14> has not appeared yet, I rather think he will not come to town this Month. He is with his Sister in Surrey, a very pretty place which they have thoughts of selling & going abroad for some years. If it is at all like what I have heard it described, it is a place that would suit you. Pray write very often, if it is only to say you are got to such or such a point of your journey. However short, your Letters are quite sure of their effect here. L’appetit vient en mangeant <15> so I hope I shall grow to like London better in a week or two, but at present je me sens un degoût inexprimable <16> for all its well known stale flat & unprofitable dissipations, for pleasure would be a word trop deplacé <17> here.
Felice te! – Te nove sorti aspettano in più beato loco! <18>
ΧαΙΡΕ <19>
Ζωη και ψυχη <20>
William has a plan for meeting us at Cracovie which he seems to think is only a hop step & jump
W. H. Fox Talbot Esqr
Corfu
Notes:
1. In the year of the Lord.
2. William John Bankes (1786–1855), politician. He was known to the literary world by his travels in the East.
3. Assume the costume of a Mameluke.
4. If you [only] knew, O dear one! what torments oppress my soul.
5. See Doc. No: 01395, and Doc. No: 01399.
6. Caroline Augusta Edgcumbe, née Feilding, Lady Mt Edgcumbe (1808–1881); WHFT’s half-sister.
7. Possibly Lady Emma Tankerville.
8. William Thomas Horner Fox Strangways, 4th Earl of Ilchester (1795–1865), botanist, art collector & diplomat.
9. Annoyance.
10. Lady Harriet Payne Gallwey (1784-1845), née Quin, wife of Lt Gen Sir William Payne Gallwey (1759-1831), 1st Bart.
11. Sir Christopher Cole (1770–1836), Captain, MP & naval officer.
12. Isabella Catherine Franklen, née Talbot (1804–1874), and Emma Thomasina Llewelyn, née Talbot (1806–1881), photographer; WHFT’s Welsh cousin.
13. Margam Park, Glamorgan: home of Christopher Rice Mansel Talbot.
14. Dr Carl Friedrich Philipp von Martius (1794–1868), German botanist. [See Doc. No: 01438].
15. Appetite comes with eating.
16. I feel an inexpressible disgust.
17. Too out of place.
18. Happy you! New fates await you in a more beautiful place.
19. Rejoice, hail.
20. Life and soul.