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Document number: 4432
Date: Fri 11 Feb 1842
Recipient: TALBOT William Henry Fox
Author: EDGCUMBE Caroline Augusta, née Feilding
Collection: British Library, London, Manuscripts - Fox Talbot Collection
Collection number historic: LA42-9
Collection 2: PRIVATE
Collection 2 number: FT10701
Last updated: 15th February 2012

[The envelope for this letter is in a private collection:]
H. F. Talbot Esqre
Laycock Abbey
Chippenham
Wilts

__________________

Florence.
Friday Feby 11th 1842

My dear Henry

I reproach myself for having been so very long without writing to you – & I think I cannot begin again on a more propitious day than this, of which we both wish you many many happy returns. – We are getting very anxious to hear some news of Constance, <1> & hope you will not fail to give us the earliest possible information – Our last letter from Mamma <2> was dated 24th Jany – in which she declares her intention of remaining for the present at Laycock Abbey, which I am very glad of. –It is now some time since Annie <3> has been quite able to travel; but just at that moment the weather was intensely cold, the ground, & even roofs of the houses covered with snow, & the roads declared to be impassable for all but couriers, who were sometimes many hours, or even a whole day behind hand – This subsequently proved to be wholly untrue – but it certainly wd have been too great a risk for a person only just recovering, to encounter several day’s [sic] journey in such severe weather – & besides all this, a secret influence was at work to keep us here for Lady Holland’s <4> Ball, & the last days of the Carnival – In fact it would have been dismal to have missed them both here & at Rome, & to have passed the Mardi Gras at Radicofani in a tourmente of snow – However, had there been no Ball in prospect, we could not have set out – there certainly seems a spell against our ever getting to Rome – Ever since Ly Holland’s first Ball on the 17th Jany Ernest <5> has been more or less suffering – About a week About ten days ago he had a sharp attack of gout in the elbow, wh was got rid of in three or four days with the help of Colchicum – This was followed however by fever wh has now lasted about a week; & tho’ not of a violent nature, it will not go – Last night he was less restless than before – & today certainly seems better – but Dr Ulrich <6> thinks it is a gastric fever & must last some days longer – this is very vexatious – besides the name frightens one – Annie’s complaint was a gastric fever – only of an inflammatory kind, with a complaint of the liver & head at the same time therefore of course much worse & more complicated – Dr U. does not think it will encrease; on the contrary he is better today – but it must have it’s [sic] run of some days – I believe the climate to be wholly in fault – the wind is still in the cold quarter, & the sun gets hotter every day – I am happy to say however that Charlie <7> has got well at last, & goes out now every day. –

Saturday

We were delighted this morning by a letter from Mamma containing the very news we were so anxious for – My little nephew <8> was only an hour old when it was written – but Mamma’s account of him & Constance are both excellent – & I must wish you both joy of this great event – particularly Constance, who I know wished so much for a son – I hope everything will go on as prosperously without Mrs Wilkes, <9> tho’ I fear she will be much missed. – We have made acquaintance with your friend Professor Amici <10> & like him extremely, independently of you, for whose sake we were naturally predisposed in his favour already – We met him first at dinner at Ld Vernon’s; <11> after which he dined with us, & has since been to see & drink tea with us several times – He has been settled here these ten years, & has married his eldest son, <12> who I believe is a Professor at Pisa, to the last rampollo of the Medici family <13> – He is extremely well bred & agreable [sic, & talks beautiful Italian – somebody told him he ought to have gone to the Bal costumé as Galileo – con un canocchiale [sic] in mano per guardare tutte le signore! <14> I gave him one of your printed papers containing two letters upon Calotypes <15> – He understands English perfectly, & after perusing them attentively, discovered what is very true, that you say nothing as to the means of preparing the paper, wh is what he wants to know – “ Ecco quel che dice il Signor Talbot: <16> After preparing paper in various ways – va bene, ma in che maniera? Pare che dica molto, e non dice nulla”! <17> I think he would be much pleased if you would send him your first printed letters on the original discovery, as here they have nothing but Daguerréotypes – He took us the other day to see the Tribuna di Galileo, <18> a beautiful room at the Accademia Museo, opened last year at the meeting of the Savans – It is painted in fresco by the best artists – the subjects are different traits of Galileo’s <19> life, & all the little ornaments represent some of his astronomical discoveries – There is also a good marble statue of him, & the Grand Duke <20> had all the instruments made in that day, collected in the same room – particularly some wh actually belonged to Galileo himself – Amici introduced us to the Director, il Cav. Antinori, <21> a very clever & pleasant person, who was so charmed with your Photographs, <22> (wh I carried with me at Amici’s desire,) that I gave him two views of the Abbey – in return for this, he sent me a book for you in wh he wrote “ Al chiarissimo Fisico, H. F. Talbot,” in argomento di profonda Stima – Vincenzio Antinori <23>”. It is a reprint of an old work, concerning the transactions of l’Accademia del Cimento, <24> published I think about 1669, containing plates of all the instruments then in use – at least thermometers, hygrometers, air-pumps &c – with a preface said to be very well written by Antinori – I thanked him duly in your name – As we were crossing the Botanic Garden at the museo, I was constrained, nothing loth, to open my portfolio again, in order to shew the gardener the photographs of leaves & plants. – We then all stood in a group while our portraits were taken with the Daguerréotype & to finish our séance <25> Amici took us up to the top of the Specola <26> lately built, together with the Museo Leopoldo adjoining the Palazzo Pitti – The view from thence is lovely, & we enjoyed our morning excessively – I gave Amici hopes you wd pay him a visit when you come for Horatia, wh I am sure will delight him – In the mean time pray send him the account of the original discovery, as amongst us all we have contrived to forget it. – Give my tender love to dear Constance, & kiss the neo nato’s <27> hand for me – Tell Mamma I will write directly & thank her much for her letter –

Yr affte Sister
Caroline


Notes:

1. Constance Talbot, née Mundy (1811–1880), WHFT’s wife.

2. Lady Elisabeth Theresa Feilding, née Fox Strangways, first m Talbot (1773–1846), WHFT’s mother.

3. Caroline's husband's niece through his sister, Lady Caroline Sophia Edgcumbe (d. 10 April 1824), who was the first wife of Reginald George Macdonald (d. 1873): in 1848, Annie Sarah (sometimes Sarah Anne) married Alfredo Salvatori Ruggioro Andrea, Baron Porceilli di Sant Andrea, a Sicilian nobleman and revolutionary commander.

4. Elizabeth Fox, née Vassall, Lady Holland (d. 1845).

5. Ernest Augustus Edgcumbe, Lord Valletort, 3rd Earl of Mt Edgcumbe (1797–1861), WHFT’s brother-in-law.

6. See Doc. No: 04378.

7. Charles Earnest Edgcumbe (1838–1915), JP, WHFT’s nephew.

8. Charles Henry Talbot (1842–1916), antiquary & WHFT’s only son.

9. Nurse.

10. Prof Giovanni Battista Amici (1786–1868), Italian optician & man of science.

11. George John Vernon, 5th Lord Vernon (1803–1866).

12. Probably Augustus Henry Vernon, 6th Lord Vernon.

13. The last descendant of the Medici family.

14. ‘With a telescope in his hand to look at all the women!’

15. WHFT published two articles in February in The Literary Gazette and Journal of belles lettres, science and art: ‘Calotype (Photogenic) Drawing’, no. 1256, 13 February 1841, p. 108, and ‘Fine Arts: Calotype (Photogenic) Drawing’, no. 1258, 27 February 1841, pp. 139–140. Caroline carried a privately published reprint: Two letters on Calotype Photogenic Drawing. Reprinted from the Literary Gazette.

16. ‘This is what Mr Talbot says’

17. ‘That’s fine, but in what way? He seems to say a lot but doesn’t say anything!’

18. Opened in 1841, in the Museum of Physics and Natural History, Florence.

19. Galileo Galilei (1564–1642), scientist.

20. Grand Duke Leopoldo II of Tuscany (1797–1870).

21. Vincenzio Antinori (1792–1865), Director of the Museum of Physics and Natural History, Florence 1829–1859.

22. These photographs were sent to Amici in 1840 [see Doc. No: 04123, Doc. No: 04117], they are now in the Biblioteca Estanse, Modena.

23. ‘To the most luminous Physicist, H. F. Talbot, as an expression of profound respect – Vincenzio Antinori’.

24. Founded in 1657 by Prince Leopoldo dei Medici and the Grand Duke Ferdinand II. The Academy developed the experimental side of Galileian science.

25. Sitting.

26. The Museum ‘the Specola’, was founded in 1775 by Granduca Peter Leopoldo di Lorena.

27. New–born’s.

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