Moradabad <1>
Jany 28. 1838
My dear Henry
I have received your letter and its affecting inclosure and I return the document which you require, and will beg you to consign to the care of my brother Robert <2> the memorial of long and unvarying affection which as been bequeathed to me by my lost friend <3> –
I did not leave England without the anticipations, if I should live to return to it, of many a loss, and many a calamity, in the circles to which my best recollections and warmest affections were attached – It is grievous to me to think how heavily, in the short interval which has passed You and the Lansdownes and Ilchester <4> have been visited, how much I have lost and how much has already been taken from those whose happiness I should most desire to find unimpaired – Remember me to your Mother and to your Sisters <5> – They will but find my affection for them confined by the loss which they have sustained – All are well with me <6> – We are in sight of the Himalayas and hope to reach Simla in about two months – we have latterly been suffering rather from Cold than Heat and have most beneficially felt the change from the relaxing climate of Calcutta – [illegible]
most truly & Affy Yrs
Auckland
Hy Fox Talbot Esqr
Henry Fox Talbot Esqr
Lacock Abbey
Chippenham
Auckland
Notes:
1. En route to Delhi and Simla.
2. Robert John Eden, 3rd Baron Auckland (1799–1870).
3. Rear Admiral Charles Feilding (1780– 2 September 1837), Royal Navy; WHFT’s step-father.
4. The families of Henry Petty Fitzmaurice, 3rd Marquess of Lansdowne (1780–1863), MP, WHFT’s uncle, and Henry Stephen Fox Strangways, 3rd Earl of Ilchester (1787–1858), WHFT's uncle.
5. Lady Elisabeth Theresa Feilding, née Fox Strangways, first m Talbot (1773–1846), WHFT’s mother, Caroline Augusta Edgcumbe, née Feilding, Lady Mt Edgcumbe (1808–1881); WHFT’s half-sister, and Henrietta Horatia Maria Gaisford, née Feilding (1810–1851), WHFT’s half-sister.
6. The unmarried Lord Auckland was travelling with his sisters, Miss Emily and Miss Fanny (Frances) Eden. Simla (or Shila) in Himachai Pradesh was later the official summer capitol of the British in India. Auckland had a house on Elysium Hill - afterwards, it became a school and was known as Auckland House.