TALBOT240

Paris
17^th Jan^y

My Dear Henry

You will be sorry to hear that Pons ¹ vient d'être privé de son emploi. C'est un nouveau fait ajouter à l'histoire des entraves que l'on apporte aux progrès des lumières & à la culture des lettres & des sciences. Cette nouvelle excitera sans doute une vive sensation parmi les Savans de l'Europe. ² Horatia ³ has had a pain in her chest, which is always an alarming thing with such a delicate creature, D^r Hyde tho' a clever man we thought too rough & decisive in his proceedings for her so we changed him for Dr M^cLoughlin all this has worried me a good deal & her too, for she is easily frightened. The Weather is much against her, we have never have a ray of Sun. She is now so much better that we are preparing for a children's ball at Lady Hunloke's, ⁴ but it is the tendency that annoys me. Giovannina has been very ill & is so still, but not in danger tho' she has kept her bed ten or eleven days. We have a Physician in the house 3 times a day. Have you heard of Lady Harriet Galway? ⁵ write to her & ask her if she wants anything f^m Paris, & if she has had my last letter, for she has never answered it. Dont say much about Horatia for it is a great disadvantage to a girl in the world to be reckoned unhealthy & particularly consumptive. Caroline ⁶ went to a ball the other night but she says it was not half so pleasant as the balls of Nice, of Rome, or even of Genoa, tho' much grander. They have been to see Mazeppa ⁷ at Français. ⁸

Will^m Henry Talbot Esq^r
Bowood
Calne