Luz
Thursday
23rd May
My dear Henry
We left Pau last Friday & went to Eauxbonnes, with wh I was quite delighted – I don’t think Jane told us ½ enough about it – quite a place after your own heart, with snowy peaks, & rocky mountains & wooded hills & green valleys & streams & cascades – the most charming promenades I ever saw anywhere chiefly climbing, but one horizontale a very pleasing variety. There was nobody drinking the Eaux yet except an American, & a very goodnatured German Ch Tiklenburg or some such name, who is somehow related to Q. Adelaide. <1> We drove to Eauxchaudes wh is not far, & a more striking situation even than Eauxbonnes as it is quite adossé <2> to the mountain – the road to it & all up the valley to Gabas the best place in France is quite beautiful. Tuesday we went to Cauterets wh did not much take my fancy – it is grand but rather desolate – but the road up the gorge leading to it very fine & Via Malaish. <3> There we again met Ld Goderich & Mr Gordon, who were at Eauxbonnes – Mr G. turns out to be the very Lieut. who figures in the Talbotype of the Superb! <4> They are now arrived here – having been up to the Pont D’Espagne this morng. I wanted to have gone there but the weather was too bad – yesterday morng & today it has rained nearly all day & I fear we shall not be able to accomplish Gavarnie wh will be a great disappointment. This place is in a pretty valley (very near S. Sauveur) with grands Pics <5> on all sides – the road from Pierrefitte most beautiful, the torrent so deep down one can hardly see it. Saturday we proceed to Bagnères – I shall be very much disapd if I don’t find a letter fm some of you at Toulouse. We are very anxious for some news – not having any for 3 days we don’t know if we are going to [illegible] or not. Is C. <6> set out for Beaumaris yet? – If we hear Caroline <7> is at Néris we will go that way to Paris & take the Bourges railway if not we will visit her at [illegible] en passant <8> – so please direct accordingly as you know where she is.
Yr affectionate
Horatia
The Brèche de Roland is said to be quite impracticable – for the snow It is a backward spring certainly
Notes:
1. Queen Adelaide (1830–1837), wife of William IV.
2. Built against.
3. Like the Via Mala.
4. One of these images, ‘Sailors by the Wheel of the H.M.S. Superb’, Schaaf 1006, taken by Nicolaas Henneman, is reproduced in Larry J Schaaf, Sun Pictures Catalogue III: The Harold White Collection of works by William Henry Fox Talbot (New York: Hans P. Kraus, 1987), p. 55.
5. Grand peaks.
6. Constance Talbot, née Mundy (1811–1880), WHFT’s wife.
7. Caroline Augusta Edgcumbe, née Feilding, Lady Mt Edgcumbe (1808–1881); WHFT’s half-sister.
8. On the way.