TALBOT2031

Sackville Street ¹
24^th July

My Dear Henry

What a slippery Eel you are – Many letters must now be at Chepstow Cowes & Lymington for you, some of them perhaps on business, at least they look so. Innumerable invitations are come for you, & they look quite melancholy on my table. Your Sisters ² have written you various letters with descriptions of what they have been about, tho’ they say you do not deserve long letters, your own are so inconceivably short. We have put off our journey till the 3^d August, because of the Fête in the Regent’s Park, but on that day I really think we shall reach the Abbey, or at least on that night late. The Lansdownes ³ were to leave town early this Morn^g I suppose they are gone. They are to remain at Bowood ⁴ till the 1^st September, when they take their flight to Ireland. I suppose your Sisters have told you of the Duchess of Bedford’s ⁵ Ball & [sic] Devonshire House which was brilliant, notwithstanding so many have left London for the elections. I know of nothing more but a Breakfast at Lady Ravensworths ⁶ [illegible deletion] at Lord Hertford’s, ⁷ but things always spring up impromptu. Tomorrow we dine at Holland House ⁸

Ever y^rs
E T F

Vale ⁹
Tibi ista acerbitas non diuturnè [sic] erit ¹⁰

Henry Fox Talbot Esq^r
Morton
Dorchester
Dorset
Abbotsbury ¹¹