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Document number: 4378
Date: 01 Dec 1841
Recipient: TALBOT William Henry Fox
Author: GAISFORD Henrietta Horatia Maria, née Feilding
Collection: British Library, London, Manuscripts - Fox Talbot Collection
Collection number historic: LA41-75
Last updated: 9th March 2012

Padua
Decr 1st

My dear Henry

I am sure you & Mama <1> will be glad to hear our fate is at last decided, & we are actually packing up to go to Rome, or at least to Florence, whence Ld Mt E. <2> will make enquiries about houses there, as it is so late in the year, & he has heard terrible accounts of the fullness of Rome. He was a long time making up his mind, as he wished so much to try the baths here – but the season is so far advanced now, & there is such an impossibility of getting a tolerably comfortable lodging, that even Dr Ulrich, <3> the original instigator, has now advised him to give it up, & proceed at once to comfortable quarters where he can begin an Iodine cure, & have rest & quiet. You may suppose this has been an interval of anxious suspense on all our parts – indeed I hardly know which would have been the greater most disappointed, those who had never seen Rome, or those who remembered it – not to mention the dismalness of a winter passed at Padua, really one of the most gloomy cities I ever was in, & the very look of the dingy arcades & grass-grown streets is enough to fill one with green & yellow melancholy. I would not tell Mama all our inquietudes, as it would only have fidgeted her, till it was decided one way or the other. It is also settled that Dr U. is to accompany us, which I am very glad of, as he understands Milord so well, & is an excellent good creature, & it is a great comfort with such a large family & children, to have good advice at hand. He is a complete contrast to Dr D. who however I shall regret as he really gave me more insight into Latin than I ever had – when we come to any inscriptions now, we try to make them out, & as they come appear in Italy at every step one can prosecute the study in the open air – I am glad you were interested in our friends at Lentomischl, they are most excellent people & I shd be very sorry never to see them again, but I cannot say I envy their 6 months winter residence in that grand gloomy old château, in a climate where not a single evergreen will grow in the garden, & without a curtain to their beds – à la mode du pays <4> – There is a professor of medecine [sic] here, a friend of Dr U. who offered to shew us some daguerrotypes [sic] on paper, curiosity we had perhaps never heard of! & was much surprised to find they were so near of kin to us. We in return shewed him some of ours which he found greatly superior & I bestowed one upon him, of Constance’s <5> gable & chimney. We hope to find Shelburne <6> still at Florence, & wish we could persuade him to give up Vienna & accompany us to Rome. I suppose Harriet <7> is already established there but she has not given signe de vie. <8> Is Constance returned home from Weymouth? I hope the little girls are come back more blooming than ever. Give them all my best love, & tell her I will write as soon as we are settled anywhere, & in return she must give me her impressions of Melbury <9> &c I hope you are taking a little more care of yr health that continual thinking & want of exercise I have long seen must end in making you ill – you must mind Mama’s good advice & take care of her en revanche but that I am sure you do not fail in. Direct to Florence till further notice

Yr aff sister
Horatia

Prof. Sterr <10> is trying to combine photography with electro-galvanism to produce all sorts of wonderful effects – & is making all various experim[ents on]<11> them

We heard of the Prince of Wales birth <12> at Venice & drank his health in Florence wine

Poor Ld Lothian’s <13> death was a great blow to Ld Mt E – he was his earliest & greatest friend – & seemed such a strong hearty man – Ly Suffield <14> must be dreadfully affected as he was almost a son to her –


Notes:

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

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

3. Dr Ulrich, physician. [See Doc. No: 04432].

4. In the fashion of the country.

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

6. Henry Fitzmaurice, Lord Shelburne, 4th Marquess of Lansdowne (1816–1866), MP.

7. Harriot Georgiana Mundy, née Frampton (1806-1886), WHFT’s cousin & sister-in-law.

8. Sign of life.

9. Melbury, Dorset: one of the Fox Strangways family homes; WHFT was born there.

10. See Doc. No: 04394.

11. Text obscured by seal.

12. Edward VII (1841–1910), King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and of the British dominions and Emperor of India from 1901. He was born on 9 November 1841. He was the eldest son of Queen Victoria and was created prince of Wales and earl of Chester when he was one month old. [See Doc. No: 04361].

13. John William Robert Kerr, 7th Marquess of Lothian (1794–1841).

14. Probably Emily, wife of Edward Harbord, 3rd Baron Suffield. [See Doc. No: 04606].

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