Corfu
July 23rd 1827
My dear Henry
I received your letter <1> here yesterday just after my arrival from Pola a small town in Istria with a very fine harbour, where there exist the most splendid & stupendous works of antiquity I ever beheld – the amphitheatre is almost perfect – and of immense size and affords I think a better idea of the luxury & magnificence of the ancients than any remains I have seen – the arena in the middle was convertible to the double purpose of wild beast fights, & naumacia <2> there being cisterns & water ways in the building underneath, to inundate the whole of the interior. Perhaps this was the Sadlers wells of the Istrian cockneys of that day. From the isolated & remote situation of Pola, these ruins derive additional interest, and I have seldom visited any spot with feelings of greater awe and veneration – There is also quite perfect, a beautiful triumphal arch with an inscription, & two temples of the Corinthian order –
At Trieste I became acquainted with the ex-queen of Naples, Madame Murat <3> who is a very agreeable woman. She discovered a most wonderful resemblance between me and her oldest son, and in consequence took a great fancy to me, & came on board with her whole suite. I thought she had a great mind to make her escape from the Austrians as she is miserably tormented by the surveillance of the Police but her suite was too large for me to make her an offer to take her to England where she told me she longed to go.
She discovered an old acquaintance in Saverio, Williams old servant who is with me. She still likes to be called Maestà <4>
I have collected and dried various plants for you, but as for bulbs I know not where to go for them unless to the market – The most extraordinary to my eye, come from the neighbourhood of Syracuse – and from Mount Erys near Trapani. My doctor is unfortunately ignorant in this subj[ect.] <5>
I am about to go to Salvador I will re[col]lect your advice – I found a plant new to me on Vulcano, growing in sulphurous ground where nothing else existed – but it fell to pieces on being gathered – it was a kind of [illegible] or cistus. – We had a very squally passage from Pola – I may say with great truth “Ego quid sit ater Adriæ novi sinus, et quid albus peccet Iapyx” <6> – Notwithstanding which I saw Acroceraunia <7> & the heavy sea with dry eyes, tho not a dry jacket – Lord Guildford <8> is not here – George Strangways <9> I hear has just arrived from Zante in the Ariadne – Of John <10> I can hear nothing satisfactory, tho I have been told on vague information that he had been taken ill at Aleppo. Nothing can exceed the hospitality of the people to me wherever I touch, the only difficulty is to get away. I almost shed tears when I left Venice – I am going on soon for the Greek islands, and am about to take a good stock of gun-powder as I hear there are 3000 Greek pirates collected at Skyros. I have seen an officer lately arrived from Poros who was on board Lord Cochranes <11> frigate, & he tells me she had only sixty men. that is, one man for each gun – You will hardly believe that, they know little more of Greek affairs here than in England. I am sorry to hear that Isabella and Emma <12> are not in London, but I must say at the same time, that it is of small use to bring them there unless there was some person to chaperone them out to parties – & my mother cannot do it herself, & does not like any other person to do it. I have argued the question often to very little effect – Sir Christopher <13> will probably now say that he cannot afford to take them there, as I have withdrawn myself from his household, but entre nous soit dit, <14> I believe if he would only spend half the sum he receives from me for them, it would be sufficient for the purpose. If I had any control over my mother’s <15> movements, they would go very differently in these respects. On the part of some people there exists a horror of introducing young men into their family, least [sic] they should be thought anglers or fortune hunters but I hold a very different opinion as I think no one capable of forming a choice, who has not seen as many as possible – This by the bye is Aunt Harriots <16> theory. Pray how do the luncheons that used to attract admirers of beauty or mutton chops to No 12 Burlington Street go on? Is Corrie <17> as favourite a dish as ever? Pray send me all the news, & excuse this scratch it blows a burning Scirocco, and I cannot move from the table – A sincere remembrance to all your family
Aff yours
C R M Talbot
Otranto
W. H. F. Talbot Esqr
31. Sackville St
London
Inghilterra
Notes:
1. Letter not located.
2. Naumachia was the name given to the representation of a sea-fight among the Romas, and also to the place where such engagements took place, often in an amphitheatre.
3. Maria Annunciata Carolina (1782–1839), younger sister of Napoleon Bonaparte. She married Joachim Murat, the younger son of an innkeeper, who had risen to eminence in the army and whom Bonaparte make king of Naples after Joseph Bonaparte was translated from the throne of Naples to that of Spain.
4. Her Majesty.
5. Text torn away under seal.
6. ‘But I (know) what the black Adriatic gulf can be, and what mischief pale Iapyx can bring about’, Horace, Book III Ode XXVII.
7. Now Cape Linguetta.
8. Frederick North, 5th Earl Guilford (1766–1827), founder of the Ionian University.
9. George Fox Strangways (1802– ca.1849), a career military man, he rose to the rank of Captain in the 7th Infantry Regiment. He was a son of the Rev the Hon Charles Redlynch Fox Strangways.
10. John George Charles Fox Strangways (1803–1859), MP.
11. Thomas Cochrane, 10th Earl of Dundonald (1775–1860), British naval officer.
12. Isabella Catherine Franklen, née Talbot (1804–1874), and Emma Thomasina Llewelyn, née Talbot (1806–1881), photographer; WHFT’s Welsh cousin.
13. Sir Christopher Cole (1770–1836), Captain, MP & naval officer.
14. Let it be said between ourselves.
15. Lady Mary Lucy Cole, née Strangways, first m. Talbot (1776–1855), WHFT’s aunt.
16. Lady Harriet Frampton, née Fox Strangways (d. 1844) .
17. From the Gaelic ‘coire’, a kettle, probably a stew or something similar.