San Bartolomeo
27th August
My Dear Henry
I received your letter from Southampton as quick as the post could bring it. Mr Hay <1> is no longer in office, but somebody always sends them sooner or later. Mr F. <2> says its always the delay of one day which the letter rests at Paris, but in common times that does not signify, & sometimes certainly I have remarked that by the Foreign Office they have been 3 days longer than by the general Post, the way by which yours from Southampton arrived so speedily. The cholera is at Mountpellier & all along the South of France so that probably it would arrive at Perpignan as soon as me, if I were to adopt that scheme. As for not taking your advice about Luna Baths how could we? I sacrificed my summer entirely to be with Caroline <3> pendent ses couches <4> – it did seem cruel to abandon her at such a moment, even with Cholera approaching à pas de géant. <5> Lord V. <6> never was able to move till he went to Lucca himself to consult Dr [Nickas?], it was then too late to move her, & the proof that it was so she was confined during his absence, ainsi soyez juste <7> & see things in the right light, which is always difficult at a distance, because it is so impossible to write every thing. We have lent the house in S. Street to Caroline from the 1st October to the 15th February, when Mr F wants it himself. She will not be in it all the time because they will visit Lord Brownlow <8> & other relations, but they want a pied à terre <9> in London without the appalling expence of an Hôtel She desires me to say there will always be a bed for you if anything should call you up to town during those Months.
I hope I shall find Lydia at L. Abbey, because I must let Gwynne <10> visit her Mother who is old & ill, at Oswestry, & I should like to find some one I am used to. Where do you think of passing part of the Winter? you need not be gêné <11> because whenever you go away which would probably be in January, I think I shall go into Dorsetshire. The only difficulty in that case would be Amandier, <12> & I suppose I had better tell her to [illegible] till Horatia <13> & Mr F. return to England; but I shall do nothing till I hear from you in answer to my last. The cholera is quite dreadful at Genoa, & there it even attacked some of the Noblesse, an impropriety it has only committed once here. It is now at Milan notwithstanding the Austrian cordon of 60 thousand men, & it is so sporadic that Lord V. is in a great puzzle which road to take, & has not yet made up his mind, because we are every day hearing of some new place attacked by cholera. Have you seen Halley’s Comet <14> yet? We thought we saw it but I believe it was the Pleiades Tell us at what o’clock & what part of the Heavens to look for the Comet
W. H. Talbot Esqre
Laycock abbey
Chippenham
Wilts
Notes:
1. See Doc. No: 02140.
2. Rear Admiral Charles Feilding (1780–1837), Royal Navy; WHFT’s step-father.
3. Caroline Augusta Edgcumbe, née Feilding, Lady Mt Edgcumbe (1808–1881); WHFT’s half-sister.
4. During her confinement.
5. In giant strides.
6. Ernest Augustus Edgcumbe, Lord Valletort, 3rd Earl of Mt Edgcumbe (1797–1861), WHFT’s brother-in-law.
7. So be fair.
8. John Cust, 1st Earl Brownlow (1779–1853).
9. Foot on the ground.
10. Mrs Gwynne (d. winter 1841/1842), lady’s maid, cook and housekeeper to Elisabeth Feilding.
11. Embarrassed.
12. Amélina Petit De Billier, ‘Mamie’, ‘Amandier’ (1798–1876), governess and later close friend of the Talbot family [See Amélina's journal].
13. Henrietta Horatia Maria Gaisford, née Feilding (1810–1851), WHFT’s half-sister.
14. Though the Comet wasn’t clearly visible to the naked eye until October, this would date the letter as being from 1835.