H. M. S. Bulldog
Palermo harbour
Jany 18th 1848
My dear Henry
I don’t know if you will be surprised at the date of this, or if you have been prepared for something of the sort, as I daresay you will have had an account of our revolution in the newspapers & will I fear have been troubled about us. Captn Lyon is here, in his yacht & has offered to take a letter to Naples & send it by Ld Napier’s <1> bag, for there is no communication allowed by post, & I thought you would be anxious. The curious thing was that the row actually began on the 12th the very day on which it was announced to take place long before – there was some fighting in the streets that day, but the next it grew a deal more serious & a great many of the young nobles joined the people. We went up to the top of the house but could not see much tho’ it was very near us – but presumably they began to fire shells from the Fort some of which went over the house. The Bulldog arrived Wednesday, & Ld Mt E. <2> asked Captn Key <3> for a guard of sailors & marines wch he sent, & they bivouacked in our antichamber luckily a very spacious one. Friday it grew more & more desperate – Captn Key went to the Governor to remonstrate on the iniquity of bombarding a town in that unheard of manner but it had no effect. We were not at all frightened, but some of the English were very much indeed one lady had a shell come into her room & another whole family took refuge in the cellar & escaped at last all thro’ the firing to a house near ours. The people seemed certainly to have the best of it tho they had only 2 guns & very few [sic] had muskets & few of them we saw them rushing by our windows with swords long knives &c such wildlooking [sic] creatures calling out Viva la libertà & viva Sa Rosalia it was very exciting. They did not offer to molest any strangers, on the contrary they came & embraced some of the English – the fact is they hoped all along that we shd help them & when they saw the Bulldog arrive they were still more confirmed in the idea – but when they found it was not the case they began to grow angry, & the last time Captn Key went to the governor it was quite at the risk of his life from both parties. [illegible deletion] The soldiers were quite beat out of the town except the Bank & the Palace & the forts, & we really hoped the people wd carry the day when suddenly 4 war steamers appeared in sight Saturday afternoon & were followed by 5 others laden with troops – & then we thought it was all over. Captn Key now advised us so strongly to embark that we did very much against our inclinations, for I don’t think the people would have touched us – & they do not seem to have thought of pillage or robbing of any sort just Before we came away, a young man was killed by a cannonball on the top of our house, who had just gone up to look out – he was a Swiss – All the ladies in the apartment over us who were great friends of his came rushing down to us all in tears – you never saw such a confusion everybody coming into our drawingroom & we packing up in a hurry – & we set off in the dark & pouring rain to an American ship as the Bulldog was too full to hold us. Sunday however they got rid of some & we came on board, where we are most hospitably entertained by Captn Key who is really most aimable [sic]& so cool & courageous quite a pattern English sailor
Sunday & Yesterday the people actually still held out fighting against 10 or 11000 soldiers – & they beat them back more than once – but I fear it cannot go on long. They have behaved gallantly & deserve to be free. I only wish we could help them. Yesterday a shocking thing occurred – a Mrs Backhouse who had taken refuge on board+ with many other English & we had remarked as looking ill, was suddenly taken with a sort of convulsion & actually died on the deck where she was laid down in less than ½ an hour+. There were several doctors on board but they could not save her they said it was a heart complaint. She had a little child 3 years old – it was really too dreadful to see her poor husband sitting by her left alone in a foreign land. She was buried this morning in a little English cemetery near the [Lazzarette?]. Really so many horrors succeed one another that we shall not be surprised at anything.
Most luckily Charlie <4> was very well recovered from his long illness & Milord pretty well – & he has borne all this wonderfully. The rest all well. We don’t know yet what is to become of us – whether we shall be taken off to Malta, or be allowed to go back to our comfortable quarters here, where we had settled ourselves very well at last & were beginning to like the place much better.
Please to continue writing as we hope to stay here Will you let Aunt Louisa <5> know we are alive & safe under British colours – & give my love to C & Amandier. <6> I hope she is better now. Poor Price! I was so sorry for her Would you be so kind as to ask C. to ask Rachel to write a line to Ellen’s sister to let her know she is alive Adieu dear Henry
Yr very affte sister
Horatia
Notes:
1. Probably Francis Napier, Lord Napier and Ettrick (b. 1819).
2. Ernest Augustus Edgcumbe, Lord Valletort, 3rd Earl of Mt Edgcumbe (1797–1861), WHFT’s brother-in-law.
3. Sir Astley Cooper Key (1821–1888), admiral; commanded the Bulldog steamer in the Mediterranean, 1847–1850.
4. Charles Earnest Edgcumbe (1838–1915), JP, WHFT’s nephew.
5. Louisa Emma Petty Fitzmaurice, née Fox Strangways, Marchioness of Lansdowne (1785-1851), wife of Henry Petty Fitzmaurice, 3rd Marquess of Lansdowne; Lady of the Bedchamber to Queen Victoria, 1837-1838; WHFT's aunt.
6. Constance Talbot, née Mundy (1811–1880), WHFT’s wife and Amélina Petit De Billier, ‘Mamie’, ‘Amandier’ (1798–1876), governess and later close friend of the Talbot family [See Amélina's journal].