TALBOT3072

Nice
19^th April

My Dear Henry

We are beginning to be impatient to hear of the interesting event, which of course you will communicate at the earliest possible moment Certainly if we could have foreseen that you were to be out of Parliament this winter, I agree with you that your visit would have been better timed here than at Geneva, but who could then guess all that has happened since?

As I ride often I have explored much more in the Contorni than the last time, they are now in all their loveliness, every green thing springs up in all its freshness, & the bean blossoms & all other odeurs du printems ¹ are delicious as one wanders among them. I have got for you several bulbs of a beautiful striped wild tulip & have dried some of the flowers. I added a postscript to M^r F’s ² Letter about l’orfano, ³ but as you seem never to receive his I will say again that I wish much to have him sent to the Cape before he is too old for it – the Parish is obliged to pay for it or was under the old regîme. He is a clever boy & I should be glad to plant his talents where they may turn to some account. Pray transact this for me, I should be glad it were done, because he will soon be passed [sic] the age. Lord V. ⁴ is recovering from a very long confinement & it is now settled we are to go as soon as he can travel & as far as Aix all together. There we are to part & I go on with Caroline ⁵ to England because she has no time to lose. Lord V. will remain there with M^r F. & Horatia ⁶ who must have a Month’s bathing. Continue to direct here because Lacroix ⁷ takes care of the Letters, & we are to stay a week at Genoa besides the uncertainty of the precise day we leave this. I do not like to abandon Caroline & it seems to me quite impossible that Lord V– could travel fast enough to convey her to London in time as it is dangerous travelling towards the [last?] In short we are as you see hérissés de difficultés, ⁸ as much as those who have to form the new administration. Unhappy Wights! I envy them not. When I turn to look at the blue Mediterranean it seems so pacific it quite calms me after reading the stormy & acrimonious debates in Galignani. ⁹ Here we are all Orange flowers (not Orange ascendancy ¹⁰) & Carnations, & tranquil & agreeable things. I wish you had mentioned who were the people who remembered us at Devonshire House, at this distance those trifles are more amusing than when one is near. How my Eyes long for Laycock & all its budding beauties –

aff^ly yrs

I think it very impertinent in Kerry ¹¹ giving leave to M^r Horlock ¹² ( sans s’aboucher avec vous même ¹³) under any pretence whatsoever – but it is clear Kerry always wished it & therefore caught at Straws

It might have led to a Duel

H. F. Talbot Esq^r
31. Sackville Street
London
Angleterre