TALBOT1541

Brighton
14^th February

My Dearest Henry

The cold has been so excessive that I almost think you will have been prevented setting out for Dresden as soon as you intended, & Lord Dudley ¹ tells me the roads are very bad, or at least were in his time, though he has some notion of a chaussée ² having been made since. But perhaps you will go in a traîneau, ³ which must be smooth & delightful, well wrapped up in Northern furs. Last week it was 21 below freezing in London & the same at Paris. Even at Nice they have had Snow, & such a winter as had not been known there for 35 years. So Harriet Payne ⁴ writes word. au reste ⁵ they are very gay, balls every Night & her two well daughters enjoying themselves, & the sick one not worse. M. de Viry’s ⁶ the pleasantest house there, he has fitted up a little theatre in it, in short though she was so set against him she cannot help liking him, what it is to have a pleasant house! I believe that is the true secret of being popular. The Hunlokes ⁷ correspond with your Sisters ⁸ & write to them of all the balls (of this gay Carnival) which we should have been at if we had staid there. I wish we had, it was an error in Judgement to leave that for this – to leave “that fair Mountain to batten on this Moor” – ⁹ I believe it is always a mauvais calcul ¹⁰ to leave a plan when one knows & feels oneself to be well & happy to try any other which must be future & uncertain. This has often been my fate, & never has it answered worse than in this instance. Mieux vaut un tiens que deux tu l’auras. ¹¹ There are more people here one knows certainly than at Worthing but nothing that can be called Society, & je m’attriste au coin de mon feu, regrettant Paris & les plaisirs du Carneval. ¹² And what is still more provoking neither Horatia nor I are so well as we were there, for the fact is amusement agrees with us both more than any particular air or medium. If we had had le bon esprit ¹³ to have remained at Paris till the end of the Carnival we should equally have had two months of this place instead of 3 to which we are now condemned, because it would be foolish to go up to town just before the Easter recess when everybody is coming away. The balls at Paris beginning at 9 are positively wholsome [sic] & good exercise this cold weather, & would have done good to Horatia’s Shyness, which I am afraid will make her uncomfortable on coming out in London. I hear satisfactory accounts from Abbotsbury, ¹⁴ Lady Ilchester ¹⁵ is composed & resigned, & has found great comfort from some papers poor G ¹⁶– left behind, as they proved how well prepared he was –

God Bless You Dearest

I hope you have had all our letters

Mons^r
Mons^r W. H. Fox Talbot

Poste Restante
Dresde
in Berlin
en Saxe
Allemagne