TALBOT3106

Nice
1^st July

My Dear Henry

We begin to think it very odd you have taken no notice of any of us since you have been at Laycock Abbey – Where you have so much more time to write than in London town, and you have so much to tell us of Constance’s ¹ progressive convalescence, Ela’s ² health & beauty, & walks in her own Cloisters with innumerable local subjects, all interesting to me. I was quite énnue ³ at a letter ⁴ M^r F. ⁵ received a few days ago from M^r Awdry, ⁶ tho’ it was only on business, but it mentioned well known fields houses & after grass, & such like touching subjects which at this distance I could hardly bear to hear of. Caroline, Lord V. & Bimbo ⁷ are gone to Mentone ⁸ for change of air, & it seems to have agreed with them all particularly him & he is actually going on from thence by land to Lucca, he imagined before that he could only accomplish the journey by going as far as Leghorn by Steam. I have been ill since I wrote last, owing they say to an over indulgence in Seed water, tho’ it certainly seems the tems & lieú ⁹ for such a Ptisan ¹⁰ if ever. The cholera having broke out at Toulon is a sad circumstance for us, half the provisions of this place come out of France, & there is established a strict cordon sanitaire ¹¹ at the Pont du Var, & we shall go through all the privations of last winter over again. Luckily your biscuit powder arrived the very day before, or they would have kept it in quarantine till it was mouldy. One of the forçats ¹² at Villfranche died suddenly the day before yesterday – immediately it was supposed to be cholera & you may imagine l’épouvante ¹³ – but to prevent Every creature deserting the place when we should have had a famine the President had the courage to go & see the man opened, & it proved to be an indigestion of bad salt fish & beans – 3 others have died since that had ate of the same, but however most certainly if I was not tied here by circumstances I should not remain, because the cholera seems travelling this way, & as the Plague has often been here in former times, there seems no reason why the other should respect Nice maritime. It is very odd how much more I think about it at the distance of Toulon than when I was in London with it. We had the pleasure of seeing a man from Bowden Hill ¹⁴ the other day – you may suppose how many questions we asked him – he is servant to somebody at Florence & was on his way there, having been home to see his friends. Horatia ¹⁵ writes to Constance, I should hope she is well enough to give us some account of herself – loves to her

Horatia is not yet gone to Aix – She enjoys the heat so much that I know not how she is ever to bear living in England. I write in the dark all the jalousies ¹⁶ shut & can hardly see the marks I make

H. F. Talbot Esq^re
Laycock Abbey
Chippenham
Wiltshire
Angleterre