[this is written on the same sheet as notes from Caroline: see Doc. No: 00040; and Lady Elisabeth: see Doc. No: 00018]
Genoa.
16 Feby.
My dear Henry.
I think this will reach you though if you keep exactly to your Time, it hardly can. I am very glad to hear of Awdry’s <1> good account of things at Lacock – the land there is so good that if land produces anything at all you are sure to be better off than other people –Nothing can give me more pleasure than to enter into your concerns & talk them over with you – Grossett’s <2> lease runs I am almost sure for 7 years from the Time of your coming of Age at least that was my wish – I hardly can advise you about selling the Copse <3>– I am suffering by a reduction of Interest on [funded?] property, & can get so little Interest for any small sum I can scrape together, that I think it a bad Time to realize – it is all a matter a [sic] calculation – which we will make together, as I suppose you do not want to give orders about it before you leave England – I am very sorry to hear of the Elms being blown down – they are the great ornament of the place, & characteristic which a real plantation would not be – There ought to be 50 or 60 single Trees planted on the Lawn, but it is an expensive job bringing no return but beauty for your children to Enjoy – but if you have the money to spare you should do it for their sakes. We go on here just the same – your Mother <4> has not been well & I shall be very glad when she is induced by settled & warmer weather, which must now come in a few days to make an excursion to Savona & along that Coast. The King’s <5> death has been a sad Blow to the amusements of the Carnival, which are totally & entirely forbidden & I am sorry for it for the childrens sake who would have had some dancing. Lady Westmorland <6> I think I told you in my last is established in Lord Byrons <7> House, she very goodnaturedly had a little party for them the other Evening, the Police sent the next day to the Consul to say it was disrespectful, but he satisfied them by the assurance that it was by no means a fêsta di ballo <8>, only 25 People being present <9>– I am very glad to hear that Kit & John <10> are coming particularly the former whose acquaintance I shall be very glad to make – & to have his Company during our progress. I cannot decide whether to go to Baden by the Tyrol, or by Zurich crossing the Splugen & through the Via Mala but this we shall have Time enough to talk over when you come.
God bless you. Yr aff
C.F. –
W. H. Fox Talbot Esqr
Inghilterra
2 Sackville St
Piccadilly
London
Notes:
1. William Henry Awdry (1778–1847), solicitor, Chippenham. [See Doc. No: 01159].
2. John Rock Grosett (1783-1866), MP; Jamaican Parliament; occupant of Lacock Abbey until summer 1827.
3. See Doc. No: 01157.
4. Lady Elisabeth Theresa Feilding, née Fox Strangways, first m Talbot (1773–1846), WHFT’s mother.
5. Victor Emmanuel I, Duke of Aosta, Duke of Savoy (1759–1824), King of Sardinia (1802–1821) on his brother Charles Emmanuel IV’s abdication.
6. Jane Saunders, Lady Westmorland (d. 1857).
7. George Gordon Byron (1788–1824), poet.
8. A dancing party, a ball.
9. See Doc. No: 01156.
10. Christopher Rice Mansel Talbot (1803–1890), immensely wealthy landowner, mathematician & politician; WHFT’s Welsh cousin and John George Charles Fox Strangways (1803–1859), MP.