Carclew <1>
– Monday 22d Septr
Carissimo Fratello <2>
Though I have never received a line in answer to the very long letter I wrote you from Kingston Hall, you see I am so good as to write again. It was very unlucky that our first letters were so long going, but we could not possibly guess they would go par préférence the roundabout way by Germany. We were so long without hearing from you, that we began to be inquiet, till Lady H. Payne <3> wrote to Papa <4> she had seen you safe at Geneva. I am very sorry to hear poor Caroline P. <5> is not so well as she was: how does she seem to you? I hope they intend going back to Nice for the winter. – I suppose Mama & C. <6> have told you how much we were pleased with Carclew, & how much prettier it is than we expected so indeed is all the part of Cornwall we have yet seen. Sir Charles <7> was not well when we first came, but has been a great deal better ever since, & very cheerful. Our time passes here very pleasantly – Sir C. lends us a most delightful little pony, which we ride alternately – he is so good & gentle, that there is no being afraid of him, & I think it does us a great deal of good. The other day we rode to Pendennis Castle, which commands the entrance of Falmouth harbour – it is very picturesque, & the sea was as blue & sunny as the Mediterranean – something like the bay of Genoa, but without Portofino – Falmouth too has a southern look, as well as all this part of the coast which does not look like England: it seems as if in crossing the ferry at Plymouth one got into a new country. The climate also is much milder it is the fashion now to send invalids to Penzance for the winter. Myrtles grow in pleine terre very well, & there are here some olive trees & caroubas from Nice very flourishing. All trees & shrubs seem to thrive here particularly well. There are some beautiful passion flowers, one sort of which (passiflora edulis) produces an excellent fruit called grenadilla, that I never saw anywhere else One of the Asclepias, the orange-coloured which is a hot house plant passed the winter in the open air. The old flower garden is very small, but Sir C. has made a new one, which I dare say will be pretty in time. The house is very comfortable & the room Mr Harrison <8> built does him great honour – it was only a passage before, & he made a delightful library of it. – The innumerable creeks & estuaries that intersect the country in all directions, add very much to its beauty, but are rather inconvenient for the communication with one’s neighbours – Tregothnan for instance, Lord Falmouth’s <9> place, is very near here by water, but at least 15 miles off by land. We are now all in expectation of Donna Maria-da-Gloria’s <10> arrival at Falmouth – you must have seen in the papers that on arriving at Gibraltar, & hearing all the bad news from Portugal, Marquis Barbacena <11> who has charge of her, determined to turn about & bring her to England instead of going on to Vienna. We went in a boat to Falmouth Saturday to see M. & Mme Palmella, who are there waiting her arrival – he seemed in good spirits, but poor Mme P. was very triste. <12> Itabayana the Brazilian minister is there too, & Valdez the Governor of Madeira, who had but just time to escape on board the Alligator, with his sick wife & 7 children. Some of the officers who were with him were even obliged to borrow clothes of the people of the ship. It is dreadful to think what a state all these poor people are in. There are near 3000 Portuguese refugees now in England – the streets of Plymouth are peopled with black eyes & yellow faces. They are now all flocking here to see their Queen, who cannot fail of coming soon as the wind is fair. I hope we shall see her landing, it will be very interesting – but unluckily it rains just now. Lord Clinton & Sir W. Fremantle <13> have been sent by the King <14> to receive her Majesty. – The Miss Lemons were here for a week, & are now gone away – they are both extremely good-natured. I believe there are some thoughts of our going to Lord de Dunstanville’s, <15> on the North coast of Cornwall, & perhaps to the Land’s end – we are now so near, it would be a great pity to leave this part of the world without seeing it. – We were very unlucky just to miss Aunt Harriet at B-races. <16> She is now gone back to Moreton & Louisa <17> is a great deal better. Aunt Mary <18> talks of coming here, but not I believe till the winter. We have had a little better weather lately, but now it has turned to rain again – however it is very mild, & I hope will help us to get rid of our tiresome cough, which returned just as we left Lacock, & has tormented us ever since. We are better just now, owing I believe to the quantities of new milk we drink every day. –
Addio, Enrico carissimo, <19> pray be better this time, & write me an answer which I am sure two such l long letters deserve, & believe me your loving sister
Horatia
C. sends you her love & expects a speedy answer to her letter.
Are you not indigné <20> to see Lord Melville <21> in his old place again? when we thought he was out for good. But the worse the better – as Mr Moore <22> says. –
Monsieur
Monsieur Fox Talbot
Poste Restante
Genève
Swisse
Switzerland
par France
Notes:
1. Carclew, Cornwall, 3 mi N of Penryn: seat of Sir Charles Lemon.
2. Dearest brother.
3. Lady Harriet Payne Gallwey (1784-1845), née Quin, wife of Lt Gen Sir William Payne Gallwey (1759-1831), 1st Bart.
4. Rear Admiral Charles Feilding (1780–1837), Royal Navy; WHFT’s step-father.
5. Caroline Payne.
6. Lady Elisabeth Theresa Feilding, née Fox Strangways, first m Talbot (1773–1846), WHFT’s mother, and Caroline Augusta Edgcumbe, née Feilding, Lady Mt Edgcumbe (1808–1881); WHFT’s half-sister.
7. Sir Charles Lemon (1784–1868), politician & scientist; WHFT’s uncle.
8. Henry Harrison (1785?-1865), London architect who was being consulted about proposed changes to the South Front of Lacock Abbey. He was active the parish of St James’s, London, which included Sackville Street. Around 1830, he worked on WHFT’s uncle, Sir Charles Lemon's Carclew House, Cornwall.
9. Edward Boscawen, 1st Earl of Falmouth (1787–1841).
10. Maria II da Gloria (1819–1853), Queen of Portugal.
11. Lieutenant-General Felisberto Caldeira Brant, Marquis of Barbacena.
12. Sad.
13. Possibly Sir William Henry Fremantle (d. 1850).
14. George IV (1762–1830), Prince Regent, King of England.
15. Francis Basset, 1stBaron de Dunstanville and Basset (1757–1835), MP,FRS and political writer. In 1824, his second marriage was to Harriet, née Lemon (1777–1864), WHFT's aunt.
16. Blandford Races. [See Doc. No: 02223].
17. Moreton, Dorset: home of the Frampton family and possibly Louisa Howard, née Fitzmaurice (d. 1906), daughter of Lady Louisa Emma Fitzmaurice
18. Lady Mary Lucy Cole, née Strangways, first m. Talbot (1776–1855), WHFT’s aunt.
19. Goodbye, dearest Henry.
20. Indignant.
21. Robert Dundas, 2nd Viscount Melville (1771–1851), 1st Lord of the Admiralty (1812–1827). [See Doc. No: 01706].
22. Thomas Moore (1780–1852), Irish poet. '"For better or for worse"/is the usual marriage curse/but ours is all "worse" and no "better",' Dialogue Between a Sovereign and a One-Pound Note (1826).