My Dear Henry
Though your pen has been very inert lately, I will not punish you as I ought by keeping you in ignorance of Caroline’s <1> accouchement, <2> which though supposed to be three weeks too soon, is nevertheless happily over, & a fine boy <3> was born yesterday without much appearance of being premature, he is so however certainly, owing doubtless to the excessive heat, which has likewise deranged poor little Bimbo, <4> who is grown dreadfully thin & pale, & who can do otherwise with the thermometer 81 in the shade on the North side of the House?
Lord V. <5> is at Lucca, on his return from Florence, & knows nothing of Events here, the Cholera having been only advanced to Fréjus at the time of his departure, and the entrances of the Tuscan post having prevented our letters reaching him, as they are so afraid of the contagion that all letters form Nice are sent to Lepham to be fumigated, they will not allow that ceremony to be performed nearer their capital. We had taken a villa in the Mountains to make our escape like the rest & it was ready & furnished not till yesterday the very day it became impossible to move Caroline. Everybody has fled, except the Authorities, who dare not leave their Port but more of them contrive to sleep in the Country which is thought a great preventative. Every night we see fires in the Cimetiere Which is on the hill of the Vieux Château they burn aromatic woods & gums always after they have buried the people, under the notion that it disperses Missmata It looks awful in the darkness. On the whole however there has as yet been much less mortality in proportion than at Toulon, or at Aix en Provence, Where it now rages & principally from the numbers of Toulounais refugees, so that our Cordon along the Var must have done some good. The Galley slaves continue to die in the Lagaritto, but they are strictly guarded and some of the Soldiers Who guard them have fallen victims. Caroline begs you will send some <Messages?> to Mrs Moore <6> with the intelligence of her <safety?>, as she knows She takes a Kind interest in it. I would have written to her, but have no time by this post as Lord V.’s absence makes it necessary for me to write to his family & there is not a Moment left by their courier.
Ever affty Yrs
EF
Pray dont be so chary of yr writingNotes:
1. Caroline Augusta Edgcumbe, née Feilding, Lady Mt Edgcumbe (1808–1881); WHFT’s half-sister.
2. Confinement.
3. He didn’t survive. [See Doc. No: 03115].
4. William Henry Edgcumbe, ‘Val’, 4th Earl Mt Edgcumbe (1832–1917), JP & Ld Steward of the Royal Household; WHFT’s nephew ‘Bimbo’.
5. Ernest Augustus Edgcumbe, Lord Valletort, 3rd Earl of Mt Edgcumbe (1797–1861), WHFT’s brother-in-law.
6. Elizabeth (Bessie) Moore, née Dyke (1783–1865), wife of the poet Thomas Moore.