Paris
Hotel de Brighton
Monday 12th Octr 1835
My dear Henry
I have been intending to write to you ever since I have been here, but never have been able to find time till today – we arrived here the 26th September, having left Nice the 6th Our original plan was to have remained only a week, but that week has insensibly swelled into a fortnight, & now I think we shall stay on till next Monday, as we find the air agree [sic] so marvellously with Ld Valletort & Bimbo <1> – I have not seen Lord V so strong or in such good spirits for nearly a year – & Bimbo who was so very ill at Nice, still extremely thin when we arrived, is now so fat & rosy it does me good to look at him – He is besides a very intelligent & good child, & begins to talk about Laycock Abbey & “little Ela Cousin <2>” – Amandier <3> has been staying with us all this time – She returns tomorrow to Brunoy, to prepare for her journey to Nice, which I believe she intends to begin the 18th I am afraid She will have a cold journey over Mt Cenis, for the winter is two months in advance this year – We found as much snow on Mt Cenis the 13th Septr as we did last year the beginning of November – She is to meet them all at Turin & go with them to Nice – I am glad Mamma <4> has decided to stay – Horatia <5> was very unhappy at the thought of parting from her, & I think it always a great disadvantage to a girl to be away from her Mother, for reasons too numerous to detail. – For Mamma herself, too, I think it the best scheme – for though she says the climate disagrees with her, I really & truly believe it was only during the hot months, which she unfortunately spent there to be with me – As long as the cool weather lasted, which was till the end of May, she looked & appeared remarkably well – & I think it very doubtful if that she would have escaped rheumatism so completely, had she passed the winter anywhere else after having had that bad attack at Geneva. I only hope she will not be bored, so long in the Same place; because that invariably disagrees with her. – If you answer by return of post, your letter will still find me here – pray do, it is so long since I have heard any thing of you – We shall probably set out Monday or Tuesday, & go up the river to London to Blickling for a visit – perhaps next to Belton – these visits we wish to make, before we settle our establishment – where that will be, or what we shall do next, is enveloped in the mists of uncertainty – We have no home in England, & go there now only to see our friends & try whether the climate will do as well as Nice – it cannot do worse – however we shall be obliged to live most economically – & as that is not a brilliant prospect, I dare say it will end in our coming abroad again –
Give my best love to Constance <6> – I hope she is stronger since she has been at Cowes, but I know nothing from England since I left Nice – pray therefore write at any rate –
Yr affte Sister
Caroline
Angleterre
W. H. Fox Talbot Esqr
Laycock Abbey
Chippenham
Wilts
Notes:
1. Ernest Augustus Edgcumbe, Lord Valletort, 3rd Earl of Mt Edgcumbe (1797–1861), WHFT’s brother-in-law, and William Henry Edgcumbe, ‘Val’, 4th Earl Mt Edgcumbe (1832–1917), JP & Ld Steward of the Royal Household; WHFT’s nephew ‘Bimbo’.
2. Ela Theresa Talbot (1835–1893), WHFT’s 1st daughter.
3. Amélina Petit De Billier, ‘Mamie’, ‘Amandier’ (1798–1876), governess and later close friend of the Talbot family [See Amélina's journal].
4. Lady Elisabeth Theresa Feilding, née Fox Strangways, first m Talbot (1773–1846), WHFT’s mother.
5. Henrietta Horatia Maria Gaisford, née Feilding (1810–1851), WHFT’s half-sister.
6. Constance Talbot, née Mundy (1811–1880), WHFT’s wife.
7. Henry Thomas Leopold Fox Strangways, Lord Stavordale (1816–1837), and his brother Stephen Fox Strangways (1817–1848), sons of Henry Stephen Fox Strangways, 3rd Earl of Ilchester (1787–1858).