Stewarts Hotel
Dover St
Monday
My dear Henry
We sent to Cox’s Hotel to enquire for you but were disappointed at finding you were already flown back to the Lakes – I hope you are all enjoying yourselves there – from Amandier’s <1> account it must be delightful. We left Caroline <2> settled in a house called Maison Valin in the Avenue des Champs Elysées – a long way from the habitable part of Paris but quiet & looking over green trees & gardens. Ld Mt E. <3> had begun the medicated baths under Dr Trousseau, & felt already a little better – tho’ he seemed to me hardly in a state to begin them having scarcely recovered his last attack. Certainly their going abroad this time has not been of any advantage. They have taken this house for a month or 6 weeks according as the baths agree with him. We left Paris Thursday & got to Folkestone at 8 – a most beautiful passage quite smooth. Tom <4> went off by early express to look for lodgings & met us at the Station – it was lucky for all the Hotels are so full he had to go to at least a dozen – We have very comfortable rooms here – it is Lady Sandwich’s <5> old house next door to Russian Embassy [sic] – Aunt L. <6> is at Bowood <7> & going on well. Mrs Osman Ricardo <8> is with her now – & Ly Morley <9> going there – Uncle Harry <10> is at Southampton with the Gallweys<11> but returns today. I went Saturday to see the Hippopotamus at the Zoo. You never saw such a crowd squeezing to get a sight of that ugly creature – just like a huge Indian rubber pig! – The weather is intensely hot – but the air so smoky & thick after Paris – Addio tell A. I have done her commissions & hoped to have sent them by you. Love to all
Yr aff sister
Horatia
Notes:
1. Amélina Petit De Billier, ‘Mamie’, ‘Amandier’ (1798–1876), governess and later close friend of the Talbot family [See Amélina's journal].
2. Caroline Augusta Edgcumbe, née Feilding, Lady Mt Edgcumbe (1808–1881); WHFT’s half-sister.
3. Ernest Augustus Edgcumbe, Lord Valletort, 3rd Earl of Mt Edgcumbe (1797–1861), WHFT’s brother-in-law.
4. Tom Valletort. [See Doc. No: 06342].
5. Lady Louisa Montagu, née Lowry-Corry (1781–1862), Countess of Sandwich.
6. Louisa Emma Petty Fitzmaurice, née Fox Strangways, Marchioness of Lansdowne (1785-1851), wife of Henry Petty Fitzmaurice, 3rd Marquess of Lansdowne; Lady of the Bedchamber to Queen Victoria, 1837-1838; WHFT's aunt.
7. Bowood House, nr Calne, Wiltshire, 5 mi NE of Lacock: seat of the Marquess of Lansdowne.
8. Osman Ricardo (1795–1881), eldest son of David Ricardo, political economist. Osman was MP for Worcester from 1847 to 1865.
9. Frances Parker, née Talbot, Lady Morley (d. 1857).
10. Henry Stephen Fox Strangways, 3rd Earl of Ilchester (1787–1858).
11. Sir William Payne Gallwey, 2nd Bart (1807-1881) and his wife, Emily Anne, née Frankland-Russell (b. 1822).