Brighton
January 14th
My dear Henry
We had a very pleasant dinner yesterday, consisting of Charlotte Butler, <1> Mr Shelley, Mr Beauclerk & Mr Law, & in the evening a very agreable [sic] party, the Ellissons, Gents, Mr & Mrs Vernon, Montagues, <2> &c. Mrs Vernon & Miss Gent sang together & I accompanied, & it went off remarkably well. We ended by dancing Mazurkas & Galloppes when almost every body was gone, old Mrs Gent playing for us. Francis Baring <3> came in the evening, & was very agreable [sic] as usual. – John Ivory’s <4> description of Laycock Abbey, has given Mamma <5> a longing desire to go there; for my own part, I think this the best place to spend this particular disagreeable time of year, & I would return to Laycock in the spring as did John Ivory. However I do not know what we are to do, I believe nothing is decided yet. – May I subscribe the sum of one penny in your name, towards £1000 that a Lady is to collect for a hospital? She laid a wager with another lady that she would collect the said sum in penny pieces, in the space of a year & a day. If successful, the amount of the wager, which was £500, was to be added to the charity; but nobody may give more than a penny, & the year expires next May. We went today to the Dutch Fair, where there is a lottery, all prizes; I got a very nice pocket-book. – Is it true that Metternich <6> has been turned out at last? We have made acquaintance with Signor Pecchio, a very agreable [sic] Milanese refugee, a great friend of Charles Fox’s – he told me he had great hopes for his country, <7> & that before three weeks we should probably hear of some change in that quarter –
Addio carissimo fratello, <8> write me a letter from Melbury
Yr affectionate sister
Caroline –
[envelope:]
William H. Fox Talbot Esqr.
Melbury
Dorchester
Dorset
Not Known
Laycock Abbey
Chippenham
Wilts'
Brighton January fourteen 1831
Notes:
1. Lady Charlotte Butler who married Christopher Rice Mansel Talbot.
2. The Vernons were related to the Lansdownes and the Montagus to Lady Caroline Montagu.
3. Francis Baring, 3rd Baron Ashburton (1800–1868), MP.
4. John Ivory Talbot, (d. 1772), ancestor of William Henry Fox Talbot (1800–1877); created a Doctor of Civil Law at Oxford University 1736; was MP for Ludgershall (1715–1722) and Wiltshire (1727–1741). See Alumni Oxonienses (Oxford and London: Parker & Co., 1888), p. 1385; see also Doc. No: 02134 and Doc. No: 04164].
5. Lady Elisabeth Theresa Feilding, née Fox Strangways, first m Talbot (1773–1846), WHFT’s mother.
6. Prince Klemens Lothar Wenzel Von Metternich (1773–1859), Chanceller of Austria. He did not fall from power until 1848.
7. Count Giuseppe Pecchio (1785-1835, Italian exile & writer. There was revolutionary unrest in parts of Italy during 1831, eventually put down by Austrian intervention.
8. Good bye dearest brother.
9. Keep well, dear Brother! (written in cursive Gothic script).