TALBOT1330

Penrice ¹

Dec^r 5 1825.

My dear Henry

I have not returned so long as you suppose, having arrived here only on the 22^nd November I was detained a week at Plymouth by an attack of illness. I can assure you I was not so fortunate as you imagine in escaping those tremendous gales in the beginning of November – That of the 3^rd was the most awful I ever saw or remember – luckily we had good searoom being 300 miles to the Westward of Oporto. We had rain, sleet, hail, thunder & lightning & the most prodigious sea I ever saw – We had also a very smart North Easter in the chops of the channel with very hard snow-squalls, in short nine days out of thirteen it blew a gale of wind. And yet we went through it all as comfortably as if we had been in harbour, except once when a sea broke on board & made its way down on our dinner table – I am sure as you interest yourself in these matters, you will be glad to hear that the Galatea ² is as easy as an old glove, & as stiff as a church –

I have no intention of going to Paris before January or February but I have a mind to go to London for a few days, I am coming to Moreton ³ where I hope I shall see you, & as Jane ⁴ informs me you are going to London, perhaps we might arrange to go together – I shall be delighted to meet you at Corfu my plan is to land at Bordeaux go to Bayonne Madrid Seville & meet the yacht at Cadiz thence to Malaga & Granada & then up the Mediterranean coasting the Spanish shore to avoid the necessity of frequent quarantine – I never regretted leaving <any?> ⁵ place more than Cadiz, the glorious situation & climate produced a cons<id^ble?> elasticity of spirit which I miss in this hazy damp atmosphere, I could not have brought myself to leave it had not the Galatea required fitting up her cabins afresh. Next time I pass that way I must have myself like Ulysses lashed to the mainmast, or I shall never see Naples –

Believe me Dear Henry Your Aff Cousin

C Talbot

Swansea December five. 1825 Chris^hr Cole. ⁶
Henry Talbot Esq^re
Moreton
Dorchester
Dorset