Sackville Street <1>
17th August
My Dearest Darling Boy
I do acknowledge having received a nice long Letter <2> from you two days ago, & another to day. Yours are very much to my taste because they give me such an exact idea of all you are about & what you are thinking of, which is answering the principal purpose of a Letter.
You seem to be very happy where you are, & I am glad your time is so well filled up as not to require shooting.
I am surprized you have found that quotation <3> because it has been pronounced by the greatest Critics to be no where.
I was yesterday at Holland House, <4> Lord H. <5> is engaged in the pursuit of a Tutor & therefore sympathized with me, in the various distresses & disappointments of such a Chace.
Pray ask your Aunt Mary <6> to answer my question abt the abode & terms of her Dancing Mistress, for as we shall probably be in town till the end of September or beginning of October, I intend your Sisters <7> to learn. Don’t be afraid of having nothing to tell me in your next Letter, all your daily occupations & thoughts upon them, is the greatest pleasure to me to know. I congratulate you on yr first country ride, I wonder you were not more tired –
Ever affly yours
E.
W. H. Fox Talbot Esqr
Penrice Castle
Swansea
Glamorgan
I hope this wont go to Glasgow. <8>
Notes:
1. 31 Sackville Street, London residence of the Feildings, often used as a London base by WHFT
2. See Doc. No: 00659.
3. Incidis in Scyllam, cupiens vitare Charybdim: You fall into Scylla, wishing to avoid Charybdis. Philippus Gualterus, Alexandreïs, 1250. [See Doc. No: 00659].
4. Holland House, Kensington, London, built in 1605 by Sir Walter Cope.
5. Henry Richard Vassal Fox, 3rd Lord Holland (1773–1840).
6. Lady Mary Lucy Cole, née Strangways, first m. Talbot (1776–1855), WHFT’s aunt.
7. Caroline Augusta Edgcumbe, née Feilding, Lady Mt Edgcumbe (1808–1881); WHFT’s half-sister, and Henrietta Horatia Maria Gaisford, née Feilding (1810–1851), WHFT’s half-sister.
8. This is written at the back of address panel.