London
14 December 1841
My Dear Horatia
I am very glad that you have decided to proceed to Rome. I was thinking that Padua must be very dismal winterquarters.
Beneath yon cloister’s melancholy shade
Where Science wanders in the dim arcade
A very famous City however it was of old, and a very learned one. Do you remember how we are told of the renowned wizard Michael Scott <1>
He lernyd the art of grammarye
In Padua far beyond the sea......
where “grammarye” means Magic (lest perchance you should take it for Grammar.) And he lernyd it, as we are told, so thoroughly
that when in Salamanca’s cave
him listed his magic wand to wave
the bells would ring in Notre Dame.
A few days spent there however seem to have tired you; recollections are poor substitutes for realities & I am glad you are going to a more exciting scene.
Who is Professor Sterr? <2> Is he Dr Alrick’s Medical friend? The combination which he is trying, Galvanism with photography, has been often tried here, & with curious results. The impression of a Daguerotype can be taken in pure copper, and the picture is very visible in the copy, without destroying the original, which was not expected beforehand. <3>
Latin inscriptions are very crabbed things. The superior taste of the Greeks is shown in this, that they wrote their inscriptions in words at full length, not minding a little more time & trouble to the graver. When Walter Scott’s Antiquary <4> found a stone inscribed A.P.L.L. he did not hesitate to explain it Agricola posuit libens lubens. and who could have proved him mistaken, if there had not been an old man who unluckily himself its being engraved.<5>
C. and the children <6> are still at Weymouth – My mother <7> is at Melbury, <8> where she has met the Poulet Mildmays.<9> Aunt Mary & Cousin Mary & John at Abbotsbury. Wm <10> has been giving a full dress ball & supper to the elite of Frankfort, & making speeches. –
Pray what is an iodine cure? iodine is what I use to make my photographs so sensitive to light – it is also what I use to destroy that sensibility when no longer wanted. Is iodine then good for everything? Pity that Nature withheld from our knowledge so valuable a substance till the year 1812.
How well I remember at Padua the indignant surprize of our Cicerone <11> at our not knowing Sant’ Antonio! How did you like it on a second visit? My impression of it is, like a large collection of melons mixed with pepperboxes – Pray endeavour at Florence to make acquaintance with an old friend of mine Signor Giambattista Amici <12> who is now I believe Astronomer to the Grand Duke. <13> As I know he takes some interest in photography (being a great optician) I will enclose if I can some specimen of Calotype for you to give him. A year or two ago Mr Babbage <13> took a whole album full of my performances for the Grand Duke hi4self, but falling ill on the road, he forwarded them by another hand, & I never heard whether they were received or not. <15> If they were, they would not convey a fair idea of the present state of the art. Write again soon.
Your affte brother
Henry
Mademoiselle Feilding
chez Madme la Comtesse de Mount Edgcumbe
Poste Restante
Florence, Italy
Notes:
1. Michael Scott ( ca.1175–1234), Scottish wizard.
2. See Doc. No: 04378.
3. The key strength of WHFT's negative/positive process was the ability of the original photographic negative to yield many prints.
4. Sir Walter Scott (1771–1832) The Antiquary (1816).
5. WHFT has incorrectly cited the inscription ‘A.P.L.L.’, which in fact should be ‘A.D.L.L.’, that is ‘Agricola Dicavit Libens Lubens’ [Agricola has dedicated this gladly and with pleasure]. Two decades before, the beggar and his friends had engraved the initials for 'Aiken Drum's Lang Ladle', mocking him at his wedding.
6. Constance Talbot, née Mundy (1811–1880), WHFT’s wife and Ela Theresa Talbot (1835–1893), WHFT’s 1st daughter; Rosamond Constance ‘Monie’ Talbot (1837–1906), artist & WHFT’s 2nd daughter; Matilda Caroline Gilchrist-Clark, ‘Tilly’, née Talbot (1839–1927), WHFT’s 3rd daughter; Charles Henry Talbot (1842–1916), antiquary & WHFT’s only son.
7. Lady Elisabeth Theresa Feilding, née Fox Strangways, first m Talbot (1773–1846), WHFT’s mother.
8. Melbury, Dorset: one of the Fox Strangways family homes; WHFT was born there.
9.Paulet St John-Mildmay (1791–1845); and his wife, Anna Maria Wyndham, née Bouverie (d. 1864).
10. William Thomas Horner Fox Strangways, 4th Earl of Ilchester (1795-1865), WHFT's favourite uncle; botanist, art collector & diplomat.
11. Guide.
12. Prof Giovanni Battista Amici (1786–1868), Italian optician & man of science.
13. Leopold II, Duke of Tuscany (1797–1870).
14. Prof Charles Babbage (1792–1871), mathematician & inventor.
15. In 1840, WHFT entrusted Professor Babbage, with photographs for the Grand Duke. [See Doc. No: 04117]. These photographs have not been located, although photographs that were also delivered to Professor Amici, at the same time are now in the Biblioteca Estanse, Modena.