TALBOT560

Harrow ¹
Feb^ry 27. 1812.

My dear Mamma,

I sent Betty ² yesterday a pound note, as my present, I hope she will get it safe, and it may be of use to her. My chilblains are very sore, and bad, I am not allowed to walk about, the doctor dresses them with cerate ³ every morning, I am in hopes they will soon be better, and then I shall be able to go up to school. Tell Aunt Mary ⁴ that I kept some paste till it was mouldy, the result was like this [illustration] only longer, closer together, and the stalks thinner, it wants 20 days to the holidays or 480 hours, or 28,800 minutes or 1,723,000 seconds. I am trying to make a pedigree of heathen mythology, but it is so complicated that I cannot get on, for instance Jupiter marries at least 100 people, sometimes five or six generations lower down, and the mother & daughter, are very often only different names of the same person - I am reading le Siege de la Rochelle ⁵ which D^r Butler ⁶ lent me, it is very interesting - You must tell Richard ⁷ that I got his letter, and have settled it all right. We are tried in a week for the Shell; ^<8>there are 163 boys in the School, do you think it increases, or diminishes? If you like, I will send you a list, which you can compare with the one I sent you last time, and observe the difference. You would oblige me much if you could obtain for me from Lady Ilchester ⁸ as she sometimes lives at Windsor, a correct list of the Eton boys, for I should very much like to see in what part of the School are Lord Hervey ⁹ & a good many of my Rottingdean ¹⁰ schoolfellows who went there; give my love to M^r F. ¹¹ Aunt Mary, & my Cousins,

Y^r Aff^te Son
W.H.F. Talbot.

R^t Hon^ble
Lady Elisabeth Feilding

Penrice Castle
Swansea
Glamorgan