83 Ebury Street
Wednesday Nov^r 28.

My dear Father

I have not yet looked for any new lodgings and shall not change untill I find some decidedly better than these. I entered at the Inner Temple on Tuesday the 6^th. I have no more dining to do till next term in January – I think Gillings ^<1> view of [illegible deletion] Sir John Talbot’s ^<2> monument fair but not one of his best, The object is not a pleasing one either. I wish I had seen the meteors ^<3> but I had in fact forgotten the day on which they were to come. –.

I saw some good optical experiments at the Polytechnic one day. I forget whether I mentioned them, the electric light was decomposed by a prism and the violet rays were thrown on a screen on which screen was a device painted in sulphate of quinine, which was invisible in white light but visible in the violet light altering its shade.

Other substances were placed in the light but the lecturer omitted to mention what they were. One which was a liquid colourless in white light became yellow in the violet light –.

Do you know anything about the Royal Institution? ^<4> I believe very interesting scientific lectures are given there, and I want to find out how one can get to see them. – Whether it is by ticket and how they are to be obtained. –

We have had some very fair weather here and some days very cold – Today there was a fog in the morning which converted the sun into a red disc.

Your affect son
Charles –

P. S. how long do you stay at Lacock? Will you go I have not had any memorandum from the Melksham Bank ^<5> of Mr Awdry’s ^<6> having paid any money to my account. I do not suppose it can have stuck at Lacock, but I should be much obliged if you will cause a message to be given to Anna Hankins the housemaid to forward all my letters to 83 Ebury St; for it seems Mamma ^<7> did not give her any directions

---

Notes:

1. See Doc. No: 05297 and Doc. No: 09155

2. See Doc. No: 03306, Doc. No: 07587, Doc. No: 04101 and Doc. No: 04106.

3. Leonid meteor shower on the night of the 13/14 November. [See Doc. No: 09155 and Doc. No: 09153].

4. See Doc. No: 09159 and Doc. No: 01001.

5. Melksham, Wiltshire: market town near Lacock, 2 miles S. For Melksham Bank see Doc. No: 09147.

6. West Awdry (1807–1892), solicitor, Chippenham.

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