Florence
May 22nd
My dear Henry
I am sadly afraid you will be waiting for us at Munich, & on the other hand, fear sometimes you will not be there at all, which would be a grievous disappointment. If you are, pray take patience, as we are certainly off tomorrow morning & do not mean to be more than 10 or 11 days on the road, so you may expect us on the 1st or 2nd I trust the change of air will really do you good, & that you will be pleased to see Car. <1> & all the fine things at Munich since our time. We should have started Saturday but Milord <2> had a bad cold. I trust he will not feel the want of a Dr on the journey, as he is pretty well now & in good spirits. I have got a letter for you from Amici, <3> who was delighted with those 2 portraits you sent last. Summer is come at length & we have been able to shew the young ladies a lucciola, and give them a little inkling of real Italy – of which certainly Florence in the winter conveys but a faint idea I think we shall have a pleasant journey thro’ the Tyrol – & all new to us. Only I shall be fidgeting about you &c but we must hope the best – & so trusting to find you in better health & not out of patience I remain
yr aff sister
Horatia
I believe we shall be at the Hôtel de Bavière – at any rate enquire for us there & we will do the same for you – that we may not waste our time in vain researches. I shd think we might do without a carriage – you can make all necessary enquiries about the conveyances to the Rhine which cannot be very difficult of attainment, particularly with a railroad part of the way.
Monsieur
Mr Fox Talbot
Poste Restante
Munich
Bavière
Germania
Notes:
1. Caroline Augusta Edgcumbe, née Feilding, Lady Mt Edgcumbe (1808–1881); WHFT’s half-sister.
2. Ernest Augustus Edgcumbe, Lord Valletort, 3rd Earl of Mt Edgcumbe (1797–1861), WHFT’s brother-in-law.
3. Prof Giovanni Battista Amici (1786–1868), Italian optician & man of science.