Brighton
Sunday
Dear Henry
I am as much comforted by the Athenæum <1> & the Literary Gazette <2> as the Nature of the circumstances admit of, but I shall ever wish it had been otherwise. This is at least the second time the same sort of thing has happened,<3> how I do wish it might operate in future as a spur to make you do yourself justice. Few things would give me more pleasure than to have you known & prized in the scientific world as Nature when she gave you those talents intended you should be, as for the Mundane world that is too insignificant to care about.
Another of the few things I still care about, I have long thought of mentioning, & may as well do so now, & have it off my mind. If you should this time have a boy, it would be a great satisfaction to me that you should not only give it the name of Charles, as you once intended, but add Feilding as Caroline <4> wished to have done but was prevented as you know by the perverseness of Lord Mt E.<5> There are so many Talbots about the world that your son should certainly have some name besides a Xtian one to distinguish him from the multitude of Lord Talbots’ sons & Lord Shrewsbury’s <6> nephews, besides the Irish branch. I only mentioned Sherrington <7> with that view, but the other would give pleasure to your sisters as well as to me, and I don’t immediately perceive any objection.
Affly Yrs my Dearest
E F
Notes:
1. In his "Weekly Gossip," the editor said he "could speak from observation" after seeing WHFT's photogenic drawings that "the effects are perfectly magical." They also carried a report of the reading of WHFT's first paper on photography before the Royal Society on 31 January. The Athenæum, no. 588, 2 February 1839, pp. 96-97.
2. They published WHFT's letter of 30 January (see Doc. No: 03782) and reports of WHFT's exhibition at the Royal Institution on 25 January and his paper before the Royal Society on 31 January.The Literary Gazette and Journal of belles lettres, science and art, no. 1150, 2 February 1839, pp. 72-75.
3. It is difficult to determine which of WHFT's many accomplishments by this time had not been recognised to his mother's satisfaction.
4. In the memory of Rear Admiral Charles Feilding (1780–1837), Royal Navy; WHFT’s step-father. But the child proved to be their third daughter, Matilda Caroline Gilchrist-Clark, née Talbot (25 Feb 1839-1927), 'Tilly' and Lady Elisabeth's suggestion did not have to be faced at the timeCaroline Augusta Edgcumbe, née Feilding, Lady Mt Edgcumbe (1808–1881); WHFT’s half-sister.
5. Ernest Augustus Edgcumbe, Lord Valletort, 3rd Earl of Mt Edgcumbe (1797-1861), Caroline's husband and WHFT's brother-in-law.
6. John Talbot, 16th Earl Shrewsbury (1791–1852).
7. See Doc. No: 07555.