Tuesday
My dear Henry,
The Ball is the day after tomorrow comme j’ai en l’honneur de vous observer, <1> and we have been calculating that if you cross from Boulogne & Stay only a few hours in London (where you cannot have much to do) that you may still be in time.
We did not see the Eclipse so well as you did, and it was not so good a one as the last I saw which was at Lady Mexborough’s Ball<2> & made the event of the Evening. But that was in July a better season for seeing Eclipses, where were you then? En Suisse je crois,<3> but you never mentioned having seen it, at l not in any letter to me. The Gallways <4> are here They crossed from Waterford to Bristol the very day after the Water Witch was lost.<5> They are getting up a play with Horatia, <6> who I hope has had a tolerably merry Christmas, considering Caroline <7> is not here. Mr. Moore <8> has promised to act with them, & Kerry & Henry Fitzmaurice <9> & Mr Colville <10> but I have strong suspicions it will all come to nothing. Likewise Mr. Sheridan ( Mrs Norton’s Brother)<11> and the Baron de Constant (cousin to Benjamin Constant)<12> are part of the Dramatis Personae. Mr. Burns <13> the Oriental Traveller is staying at Bowood, <14> but I fear he will be gone before you come. He is not long returned from India & was sent by Lord William Bentick <15> to explore. Lord Lansdowne <16> liked him extremely & says his conversation is most interesting.– Horatia is writing out her part but sends her love
Ever Afftly
EF
If the play succeeds how envious Caroline will be!
its what she always wished for.
Henry Fox Talbot Esq. MP
31 Sackville Street
London
Notes:
1. She means ‘as I have the honour to let you know’.
2. Lady Anne Yorke (1783-1870), wife of John Savile, 3rd Earl of Mexborough of Lifford (1783-1860).
3. In Switzerland, I think.
4. Sir William Payne Gallwey (1807-1881), 2nd Bart, and his wife, Emily Anne, née Frankland-Russell (b. 1822).
5. On Christmas Eve, the the recently-built steamer Water Witch struck rocks while travelling in dense fog off Ballyhale, on the Wexford coast. It sank with the loss of four passengers and several crew. It had cost £12,000 to construct and was considered to be the fastest vessel afloat.
6. Henrietta Horatia Maria Gaisford, née Feilding (1810–1851), WHFT’s half-sister.
7. Caroline Augusta Edgcumbe, née Feilding, Lady Mt Edgcumbe (1808–1881); WHFT’s half-sister.
8. Thomas Moore (1780–1852), Irish poet.
9. William Thomas Fitzmaurice, Earl of Kerry (1811–1836), MP and Henry Fitzmaurice, Lord Shelburne, 4th Marquess of Lansdowne (1816–1866), MP.
10. See Doc. No: 02740.
11. Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1809-1888), High Sherriff of Dorset and MP; brother of Caroline Elizabeth Sarah Norton, née Sheridan (1808–1877), poet, novelist and feminist.
12. Benjamin Constant (1767–1830), French politician and novelist.
13. Col James Glencairn Burns (1794–1865), son of Robert Burns.
14. Bowood House, nr Calne, Wiltshire, 5 mi NE of Lacock: seat of the Marquess of Lansdowne.
15. William Cavendish-Bentick the Governor-General of India (1828–1835).
16. Henry Petty Fitzmaurice, 3rd Marquess of Lansdowne (1780–1863), MP, WHFT’s uncle.