TALBOT1242

Redlynch ¹
Monday Jan^ry 17^th 1825

My Dear M^r Feilding,

We are a very merry party here, and the weather favours us in the highest degree. Today was sunny and warm as summer. I killed a pheasant & two hares today, Lord I. ² lends me his detonator & I mean to buy a gun on that principle, so superior to the flint guns ³ - M^r Selwyn rode over today from Kilmington,⁴ I had not seen him for many many years, long before his marriage: but I immediately recollected him. I am astonished at the late letters of my mother ⁵ to different people, saying that your all of you coming to England this year is an illusion, what does that mean? I am afraid you or my mother must be in low spirits to write such things.

Pray tell Horatia ⁶ how glad I was to receive her letter, but that I have no time to write at present. Anybody might have made their fortune this year in the Mexican Mines, ⁷ the time is gone by now, and those who try the concern now will very likely be ruined. Kit ⁸ intends to sail for the Mediterranean next summer or autumn; if you like a trip to Lisbon he will be I daresay most happy to take you. His yacht is to have 16 [illegible deletion] men and 180 tons. Iron Railways ⁹ will soon be universal in England, & we shall travel at the rate of 15 miles an hour on them by steam or by gas, if Brown's gas engine ¹⁰ succeeds.

Of Redlynch I had very faint recollections, I think the country very rural & pretty. Alfred's tower on the hill near Stour Head ¹¹ is a striking object. I saw Glastonbury Tor ¹² in the distance which called up in my mind very early recollections.

Yours ever aff^ly
H. Talbot