Calais, Hotel Rignolle
7th August 1828
My Dear Mother
Yesterday I went from London to Dover by a very slow coach, but as I was not pressé d’arriver <1> it did as well as a faster one. The day was rainy & foggy. We had a high wind this morning, but as it was fair I decided to embark. We had a squally passage, but were safely landed at Calais in two hours & a half. Mrs and Miss Villiers <2> & two of her brothers Hyde and Edward <3> were on board – They all proved very bad sailors, & as their domestics were no better, they were glad to recognise an old acquaintance in my servant, who waited on them with much zeal.
For my part I lay down on deck and fared pretty well except when a shower of rain came which obliged me to muffle myself up in my cloak. – The afternoon is now turning out fine & I hope to reach Montreuil today. All the diligences being full, I must either stay 24 hours at Calais or take the post. I think I shall prefer the latter. – Will you desire Macphail <4> to save all the seeds he can; I dare say Car. & Hor. <5> will make themselves useful in that department. I am reading Moliere <6> again, I have already got through Tartuffe & George Dandin <7> since I left Town. –
Your affte Son
H. Talbot
Lady E. Feilding
Lacock Abbey
Chippenham
Angleterre
Notes:
1. In a hurry to arrive.
2. Theresa Villiers, née Parker (d. 1855), and her daughter.
3. Thomas Hyde Villiers (1801–1832), politician, and his brother Edward Villiers.
4. See Doc. No: 01676.
5. 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.
6. Jean-Baptiste Poquelin (Moliere) (1622–1673), French playwright.
7. Moliere’s Tartuffe, first performed for King Louis XIV at Versailles in 1664, and prose comedy George Dandin, first performed in 1668 as part of a spectacular festival organised at Versailles in July 1668 of Aix-la-Chapelle.