TALBOT1432

London
12^th May

My Dear Henry

We have just got your Letters ¹ of the 10^th April. We have received all yours & I wish I could think you had ours, for we have sent them all manner of ways. Perhaps you missed the one that contained so much bad news, of poor little Charley Lemon’s ² death & consequent dreadful illness of his poor Mother, ³ & the account of Horatia’s ⁴ meazles, which she has had heavily, but is now thank God recovering. The letter she got from you cheered her much, & as probably Caroline ⁵ will catch them you must write to her too, to comfort her. Your descriptions of Corfu make us all long to go there. You seem so uncertain how long you shall stay there that I shall inclose [sic] this in the Government Bag to William, ⁶ as I am sure he will know where to direct to you. M^r F. ⁷ had sent the bottles of Milk &c &c which you desired, by the Falmouth Packet ⁸ a week before your counter directions. They were sent with the leave of the Secretary to the Admiralty who was very civil about it. This Spring has been tout à fait gâté ⁹ to Caroline from one contre tems ¹⁰ or another, & the misfortune to the Lemons & then Horatia’s illness spread a gloom over it, & now the apprehension of her own Meazles, which she will probably have, & by the time they are over the Dissolution will have taken every body out of town.

I have written to you ¹¹ on the 14^th March, on the 29^th March, on the 22^d April, on the 4^th May – & should have done so much oftener had I had anything agreeable to communicate or could I have felt certain you would ever have my letters. If you never get this it will be no loss as I only write to tell you we are alive. Besides our own particular griefs, it has been a remarkably dull year in London, owing to the universal distress & the préoccupation des esprits ¹² about the elections. ¹³ Parliament is to be dissolved the [1^st?] June

God Bless You

Our going abroad must now depend on Horatia’s health, as though the Meazles are generally well got through yet they are very apt to leave the seeds of consumption so that she must be carefully attended to. The weather is remarkably unfavorable, cold North East winds & quite ungenial. Its very likely she may be ordered abroad, of that I will apprize you We wish every day we had a villa to go & refresh at.

Answer about the Euphorbium Dendroides ¹⁴

M.
Mons^r W. H. F. Talbot