Rome
Saturday 3rd
My dear Henry
Caroline <1> got your letter yesterday & we are sorry to see you are still troubling about us. I assure you nothing can be quieter than we are, & tho there are daily rumours of French troops embarking at Toulon & Spanish vessels arriving landing at Gaeta &c nothing ever arrives here. The Bulldog <2> is still at Civitavecchia & Capt Key <3> here off & on: Monday is the meeting of the Constituente & we shall see what they will do. Some think their first proceeding will be to invite the Pope <4> to return but I fear he would not accept & indeed without some Swiss or foreign troops to protect him I suppose he hardly could trust himself among them. Everything in Italy is going on in the most untoward manner possible it is the more disappointing after the bright visions of last year. Now the avenir <5> is darker again than ever. I cannot help wishing regretting as there really has been hitherto no cause of alarm, that you did not come here this winter. It has been such a remarkably fine one, a constant succession of bright days, & very little cold, only a few days at the end of Decr & now again this week & tho it must certainly be called a dull Season, that would not have affected you much. We made an expedition the other day with Jane <6> & a large party to Gabii & lunched on the grass in the temple of Juno gabina there were some pretty little crocus in flower white & streaky. I have had several delightful rides about the Campagna on the donkey & one day actually mounted a horse with great success & mean to try it again. Mr Nicholl <7> is most indefatigable in arranging riding parties & an excellent guide as he knows the country now so well. Caroline was so pleased 2 days ago to get an order from Pce Albert <8> to buy a very pretty statue by a German artist in great distress (as indeed most of them are in these hard times) It is a sleeping Filatrice <9> with her distaff fallen at her feet & C. had mentioned it in writing to H.M. There is by the same artist a bassorilievo of the same figure reclining asleep with a genius spinning the thread an allegory of Providence watching over human[s?] <10> This struck C. as so very pretty & those sort of things very seldom are so that she thought it might be good subject for the monument in the church at Laycock as you were wishing for something not commonplace & not too large & she has asked Troschel <11> to make a drawing of it if possible to send with this letter by the Via di Mare not to lose time in case you shd fancy it. She has looked at many rilievos for monuments at different studios but never found any she really liked & I shd think those things were much more expensive in England than here, even with the carriage as it goes by sea. The price of this is 150 scudi about 30 £. Let us know without delay what you think of it & if you do not think it advisable, whether you would like us to try & find some other design. This is certainly very pretty & the allegory may very well be adapted to a monument adieu dear Henry pray write soon
Yr aff sister
Horatia
[envelope:]
Henry Fox Talbot Esqre
Laycock Abbey
Chippenham
Angleterre
via di Mare
Inghilterra
Notes:
1. Caroline Augusta Edgcumbe, nιe Feilding, Lady Mt Edgcumbe (18081881); WHFTs half-sister.
2. See Doc. No: 06087.
3. Sir Astley Cooper Key (18211888), admiral; commanded the Bulldog steamer in the Mediterranean, 18471850.
4. Giovanni Maria Mastai-Ferretti (17921878), Pope Pius IX from 1846 to 1878. [See Doc. No: 06171, Doc. No: 06188]. The Constituent Assembly of Rome abolished the secular power of the Pope and proclaimed the republic on 9th February 1849.
5. Future.
6. Jane Harriot Nicholl, nιe Talbot (17961874).
7. Dr John Nicholl (17971853), MP.
8. Prince Albert (18191861).
9. Spinner weaver.
10. Written off the edge of page.
11. Julius Troschel (1806-1863) German-born sculptor, Prof of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Berlin; primarily active in Rome; specilised in portrait busts, mythological subjects and some grave monuments. See Doc. No: 00214 and Doc. No: 06216.