Cadiz
Septr 24 1826
My dear Henry
I wrote about a week ago to Mr Feilding <1> to tell him I had shipped his sherry on board a brig bound to London – but as this letter will go by the George the Fourth Steam boat, it is very probably the intelligence may be new to him – I went on board the steamer yesterday with a large party of Spanish ladies yesterday who had never seen anything of the kind before, & were very much astonished, but what most engaged their curiosity was the cooking apparatus. She is 750 tons & nearly as long as a 74 gun ship – makes up more than 100 beds – intended to ply between London Lisbon Gibraltar & Malta & Corfu. She will be nine days going from London to Gibraltar. how easily you might join me at Sicily by landing at Malta, and you would have an opportunity of seeing the greatest natural curiosity in the world in Gibraltar. The French are still here, and seem likely to remain some time longer, but they are highly anxious to be gone as they are no favourites with the Spaniards – two days ago the French Brig Euryale sailed in pursuit of a Colombian privateer with orders to sink her wherever she could meet her, but as the Republicana is at present in Gibraltar Bay, I fancy it will be no easy matter to deal with her – There are four fine Spanish men of war in this harbour, who have been lying here these twelvemonths, and are positively blockaded by one small Colombian. The pitch of degradation to which the Spanish character has arrived is hardly conceivable – but a reaction must take place sooner or later. We shall leave this in a few days for Gibraltar, and sail thence to Malaga, Port Mahon, & Naples, thence to Palermo, Messina & then up the Adriatic. but much will depend on the quarantine which may happen to exist at the places we touch at. Mr Powell my fir[st]<2> Lieut. was ninety days in quaran[tine] at Messina, though straight from England – If you write to me, direct to me at Naples. We had a very fine passage here from Falmouth, only four days to Cape St Vincent and two days from thence here – and we do not intend to be longer on the voyage to Naples. Pray send me all the family news you can collect
Believe me Ever truly yours
C R M Talbot
Steam Ship George
Cadiz Sepr 25. 1826
W. H. F. Talbot Esqr
31 Sackville St
London
Notes:
1. Rear Admiral Charles Feilding (1780–1837), Royal Navy; WHFT’s step-father.
2. Text torn away under seal.