Harrow
Janry 20th 181 1 2 <1>
My dear Mamma,
I will now relate to you my stage coach adventures which Jane <2> would thank you to communicate to her - When I got in to the coach there was nobody there: in the night a gentleman came in who proved to be Mr Richard Quin, <3> he was excessively entertaining; he told me he came from Mr Wyndhams <4> at Dunraven Castle,<5> before which he had been at Sir Charles Morgan's <6> at a visit there: eighty people sat down there to supper every night & on Twelfth day an hundred & twenty: they had a masquerade that day, Mr Quin was a lady going to court with an enormous hoop which precluded his going to supper, so he changed his dress to a Swiss peasant playing the double flageolet - He left me at Newport, & I journeyed by myself to Bath, where I came at near seven, too late for the coaches the latest of which sets off at six, so I took a chaise to Bath & got to Mrs Davenports <7> at a quarter before ten - Next day I went to the cabinet of gems there, with Marianne <8> & was well amused; I dined; & at four I went to the coach office, & set off at a little past five. I forgot to tell you that Mrs Davenport was so kind as to give me a pound note, so that I am very rich Marianne is very tall, & pretty pretty. However from Bath, I went with a proud gentleman, a young Lady, & an old one, in the middle of the night a gentleman came in with the consent of the rest which made us one more than our number: thus was I poked in the middle, & consequently could get no sleep: at half past 12 we stopped to sup, & at the same time next morning arrived in Sackville Street. <9> I could not go to bed because it was broad day light, but sat down to rest myself, quite knocked up. Richard <10> ordered the chaise to come at 2, but I was too tired to go on that night, so I stayed till Sunday, & Richard got off the chaise for five shillings which I paid, since I did not know whether you would like it or not: on Sunday morning I thought I might as well go to church, & I went to St James's with Betty <11> - at ½ past 2 I set off for Harrow, where I got at 4, & am there now as you see by my letter. Betty told me, when I asked her why she did not write to tell you that she was going to London, that she wrote you a letter & Aunt Mary <12> three to that purpose, & as they never arrived she thought there was a something, but what sort of a something she would not tell me. She sends you her duty; she has declined a place with a family going to Malta; she hopes she has not offended you in anything; I wish I could tell you exactly what she told me - I have written you a long letter, My next I am afraid will be a dry one,
Your Affte Son
WHF Talbot.
Lady E Feilding
Penrice Castle
Swansea
Glamorgan
Notes:
1. Harrow School: WHFT attended from 1811-1815 and his son Charles from 1855-1859. Talbot made the common mistake of not remembering the new year and subsequently corrected 1811 to 1812.
2. Jane Harriot Nicholl, née Talbot (1796-1874).
3. Valentine Richard Quin, 1st Earl of Dunraven and Mount-Earl (1752-1824); related to the Fox Strangways and Wyndham families.
4. Probably Thomas Wyndham (d 1814), MP and builder and owner of Dunraven Castle.
5. Dunraven Castle, Glamorgan, Wales.
6. Probably Sir Charles Morgan (1760-1846), MP and landowner in Newport.
7. Barbara Davenport (1754-1812), WHFT's aunt. See Doc. No: 00912.
8. A chambermaid. See Doc. No: 03288.
9. 31 Sackville Street, London residence of the Feildings, often used as a London base by WHFT.
10. Richard, a servant.
11. Elizabeth Vickery ‘Betty’, WHFT’s governess. When she died in autumn 1835, WHFT paid to have a gravestone placed at Cutcombe, Somerset, inscribed: 'Erected to the Memory of Elizbth Vickery his kind & faithful nurse by Henry Fox Talbot of Lacock Abbey in the country of Wilts Esqre'; the stone's inscription is still readable - See Doc. No: 03205.
12. Lady Mary Lucy Cole, née Strangways, first m. Talbot (1776-1855), WHFT's aunt.