TALBOT1160

27 Duke Street, S^t James’s
7^th Feb^y 1824

My Dear M^r F.

I returned to Town yesterday night from Melbury -¹ I hope you received my letter from Bowood, ² and that from Abbotsbury. ³ At Moreton ⁴ I saw by good fortune my aunt Charlotte, ⁵ she was looking very well & cheerful; her account of M^r Lemon ⁶ is not comfortable his voice is so feeble as scarcely to be heard. They talk of Italy for their next winter. – You have heard I suppose that my aunt Susan ⁷ has been very ill. I saw her at Moreton however in appearance quite recovered, & gay as usual: but a second attack will be to be dreaded at her age – She is going to spend her 81^st birthday at Melbury which she has set her heart upon. – Jane ⁸ is in Town (at 8 Montagu Square) looking very well & so does Johnny who is a fine child. ⁹ – Accounts of Chary from Penrice ¹⁰ are not good. William ¹¹ is at Melbury, waiting his summons to the Hague. – Little Caroline Strangways L^d Ilchester’s youngest child is very pretty and intelligent, she is just 5 years old.¹²

Pray tell Car. & Hor. ¹³ they are by no means forgotten by their friends in England, I have been overwhelmed with questions about them, whether they have forgotten English and whether they are as agreeable and pretty as ever, and which is the tallest. I bring them two views of Penrice from Emma. -¹⁴ I hope to see you all about the middle of March. I understand that Richard’s place at the Docks ¹⁵ is worth £80 per ann. – but that he is liable to be removed at pleasure – If you could get him permanently established there, I think you would do well to look out for another upper servant, as his late conduct has not been very good – At the same time however I think you would wish to secure him a permanent provision at the Docks, as great allowances are to be made for him, especially in his having a wife who is a perfect fury – I wish his daughter were placed in some family, as she seems a good sort of young woman & is horridly ill treated by her mother, to say nothing of the example she sets her. – Nicole ¹⁶ wrote to me the other day to know if I had any occasion for his services – I answered that I had not at present – I keep an eye on him, as I understand he is so good a servant, and I almost wish he were engaged as a supernumerary in the family that we might have opportunity of judging for ourselves, because as he speaks & writes English so well there would be no reason for parting with him on returning to England, which I must with Giovanni ¹⁷ next year, at least I am afraid so. – Nicole is now at Paris, if you write to me by return of post, direct to me at Paris, and after that to Lyons and Nice –

Yours aff^tly
H.T.

Monsieur
Monsieur Feilding
Gentilhomme Anglais

Gênes
Italie