TALBOT2973

Les Délices ^<1>
14 August

My Dear Henry

At last for the first time to day we have three letters, one from you ¹ which gives me the delightful news that you are coming, how pleased I was! for the length of the Session made me despair. I now find Horatia ² will be returned from Aix before you get here or nearly as she & M^r F. ³ go there tomorrow only for 3 weeks, as nobody bathes longer at a time. D^r Prevôt a physician of great reputation at Geneva has certainly done her good, but he says Aix ⁴ must complete the cure & he has never known it fail. M^r F. is much worse than she is now, but with no particular complaint except indigestion, caused by the excessive heat, which D^r Prevôt says always sensibly decreases here after the 20^th August. The Baths of Aix he expects will do him good too. Remember you need not go thro' the town to get here, we are on the right hand as you pass Sicheron,⁵ but not on the great road, which is lucky as we should be smothered with dust. We are very retired & tranquil & shady. I suppose you will come the S^t Cergue way, we came a charming winding road which appears quite new down from S^t Cergue to Nyon, which view did not strike me as finer than the first sight of the Lac de Neuchâtel from the Jura. Every part of the Jura is grand & fine, and perhaps the S^t Cergue pass struck me less from expecting more from Rousseau's ⁶ eloquent description. We returned yesterday from an expedition with Lord V. & Lord & Lady Sydney ⁷ in a Steam boat to Vevay, with which I was much pleased, tho' the heat was intense notwithstanding the Awning. This is the only excursion I have yet made, having been always with Caroline. ⁸ I am doubting about the Grand S^t Bernard, and shall wait till I hear your opinion whether it is beyond me. I gave you an account in my last of the road we came thro' France, all of which was new to us except Besançon. I wish you would tell me the plan of your journey, you mean to zigzag I know. Let me know before you get here that your rooms may be arranged, as comfortably as we can

aff^ly yours
EF

There is nobody here we know except Lord & Lady Sydney, & Baron Fagel ⁹ an agreeable old Man who was many many years Ambassador from Holland, in England, & knows Everybody. The new Child ¹⁰ is godaughter [sic] to the Queen, ¹¹ & is of course to be Adelaide. The Christening is put off till after Horatia's return from Aix.

Caroline does not mean to be at Nice till near Christmas. How I wish you could come there with us! We intend going there some time, in October, which will be modified by the length of time you can or will stay here. I am now of opinion that M^r F. was much more shook by his illness last winter than I was aware of at the time. He minds heat & every inconvenience much more than he used to do.

M^r F. fancies this place disagrees with him but the fact is he is ill, and thus it is natural to lay it on the place.

Henry Fox Talbot Esq^r
31. Sackville Street
London
Angleterre