TALBOT1706

Kingston Hall¹
Friday 29^th August

Carissimo Fratello ²

We have been so taken up with the races, that I have not had time to write since we have been here. We left Lacock Monday & arrived here just in time for dinner. we found in the house M^r & M^rs G. Bankes, M^r W. Bankes M^r Alexander, Captⁿ Woodley ³ & M^r Peach. M^r W. Bankes is excessively amusing, I never heard him really talk before, having only seen him at balls & parties. M^rs G. Bankes is very good natured, I believe she is a great friend of Harriet’s. ⁴ This is a delightful place house: one of the drawing rooms is quite like an Italian room very high with an upper set of windows – & some very good pictures. there is a granite obelisk, that W. Bankes brought from the island of Phile⁵ & that is to be set up opposite the house on the lawn – The stone it is to stand upon was laid last year by the Duke of Wellington ⁶ & has an inscription to that effect. The races the first day were not very good but the course is a very pretty one as you see the horses the whole way round. Henry Frampton ⁷ is there & quite well again. He says Louisa ⁸ is much better, but they are to stay at Bowes a fortnight longer. It is a great pity they were not here, the only time we have ever come. I was very much amused at the balls & had more partners than I could dance with – it was so much pleasanter than any ball in London. The room was very good & the music excellent. – The second day the races were better, the last one was very pretty as the two horses came in almost together. Afterwards we dined at the ordinary with a hundred people, which entertained me exceedingly – they drank M^r Banke’s health, & the Steward, Sir E. Baker’s ⁹ – upon which they got up & made speeches. Mama ¹⁰ was bored to death with the dinner – but C. ¹¹ & I were delighted. – M^r Banke’s is a nice old man , very good natured – he has promised to take us to-morrow to see Corfe Castle,¹² & we are going Sunday to Saltram, Lord Morley’s. ¹³

I hope you have had as fine weather as we have lately, it must be most delightful to be rowing about on the lake of Geneva by moon-light. Pray don’t forget to look for our villa near Chilton – Lord Lansdowne & Aunt Louisa ¹⁴ set off Tuesday – they are going by Calais, Lille, Mons, Namur, Luxembourg, Mayence, Coblentz to Francfort, where they will leave Kerry & Henry ¹⁵ to come back with M^r Guthrie by the Rhine as Henry is going back to Westminster & Kerry to Cambridge which he is vastly proud of. He is going to Trinity College. ¹⁶ They will go from Francfort to Augsbourg & Munich, & we have advised them strongly to go to Salzbourg in their way to Insprück, & through part of Switzerland & over the Splügen to Milan, Parma, Bologna & Florence. feliciloro! I think Lord L will hardly have the heart to stop there, & not go on to Rome, but my Aunt says they will certainly be [missing text]¹⁷ Christmas. – We went to see M^rs Moore ¹⁸ the day before we went came away, & found Anastasia a great deal better – they think that she will soon be quite recovered. M^r Moore ¹⁹ was very much pleased with Caroline’s two last vignettes, the singing Lady & the voice – that is to say, the Lady carried off on horseback in the sea. The pilgrim is now engraved. M^r Moore sang it for us the other day – the words & air are beautiful, & very melancholy. – We left Lacock in great beauty, the Dahlias are quite splendid, & my garden has several pretty flowers besides the Ferroria Tigrisha, for which I find I was quite wrong in calling the Tiger Lily. The blue Campanulas at Bowood ²⁰ are the finest I ever saw – I think they are 6 feet high. Pray go & see – M. Eynard – Lord Lansdowne’s [sic] says he is at Geneva. I do not believe a word about the Turks having beat the Russians at Tchumla²¹. – I don’t think we have heard a word of politics since we have been here – it seems quite odd – but it is so much the better, as they are wretched Tories – they take in the Standard & John Bull! – Nobody can tell who is to be first Lord of the Admiralty – some say Lord Grey, ²² some Lord Marlborough, or L^d Melville ²³ again. – Addio, enrico carissimo, ²⁴ pray write me a letter as long as this if you have time & tell me all you are doing & how you go from Besançon to Geneva. Mama et C. t’embrassent, insi que ta s œur ²⁵

Horatia

PS. ²⁶ Cal is keeping [missing text] and of the weather.

I was going to write but this child has [forstalled?] me. [illegible] [But?] you shall be
CF ²⁷