My dear Henry
We are off tomorrow <illegible> – Horatia <1> gets on very slowly – but I hope much from change of air & scene daily – we intend sleeping at Andover – & if she is tired shall rest a day or two on the road – write us a Line of News by Mondays Post to P.O. Farnham – you shall hear from us on the road of our proceedings – We ought to be at Dover Thursday – we have about 178 miles – & from Andover all pretty country. we shall pass through Sandgate, do you remember my taking you up the Cliff in days of Yore – & moreover nearly letting you tumble down? Littleton has made a nice Job of it!!! – I do not expect any government will stand long – but by the Duke of W. <2> extreme wrath, it is clear he sees how impossible it is for the Tories to come in – You will find your wine in Fitzsimmons <3> care you can pay me when we meet – or next year – It is a good Idea of Sir Thomas Phillips <4> – I wish you would publish Walter de Byblesworth Treatise <5> & that Inventory of Furniture where we might perhaps learn the meaning of several of the words now unintelligible. –
God bless you – I am glad you did not come it is melancholy enough leaving the Place without the additional Pain of taking leave of those we love – however please God our separation will not be very long
Yr aff
CF
W. H. F. Talbot Esqre M.P
Sackville St
London
Notes:
1. Henrietta Horatia Maria Gaisford, née Feilding (1810–1851), WHFT’s half-sister.
2. Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington (1769–1852).
3. Cornelius Fitzsimmons, Scottish gardener at Lacock Abbey.
4. Sir Thomas Phillipps (1792–1872), antiquary & collector.
5. Treatise on the French language in the time of Henry III. [See Doc. No: 02943].