TALBOT573

Malvern ¹
23 June 1812

My Dear Henry

I am afraid you will be woefully disappointed in Caroline's ² attainments, unless her Governess makes very good use of the three weeks she will be here before you. I will not raise your hopes about the next Speech Day, it is possible M^r F. ³ may get to Harrow ⁴ but not probable, though he very much longs to see you. I am reading D^r Beddoes's Life, ⁵ he has not been very long dead, & was an extremely clever man & a great chemist. He was the first who brought M^r Davy ⁶ into notice when he was quite a young Man & it was no small merit in D^r Beddoes to have discovered such a treasure in obscurity. Amongst other books he wrote a book to warn School boys of the very great mischief they do their health in various ways before they are old enough to be conscious of it. He seems very much against Schools both for Girls & boys, & thinks Shoals of Children are rendered diseased or carried to a premature grave from the malpractices they learn at such places. It is an interesting book, & written with a most vivid pen. I saw in the newspaper that a Winchester Schoolboy who was bathing the other day in the river Itchen, got his feet entangled in some weeds & was drowned. Did you not know that M^r Selwyn ⁷ was going to be married to Charlotte Murray ⁸ your new aunt's Sister? I cannot answer your question about Mathilda unless I read the book & knew the Story. Your Cousins come Thursday after tomorrow. Lord Adare ⁹ is here. I am going with Lady Harcourt ¹⁰ to see Castle Ditch ¹¹ in Herefordshire a place of Lord Somers's ¹² when I have seen it I will describe it to you I have a very fine print of the Cloisters at Laycock Abbey, I believe I shall copy it as the print is only lent me. Lord Landsdowne ¹³ & your Aunts Charlotte ¹⁴ & Louisa ¹⁵ went to see a Steam Engine which by some mismanagement burst, & Lord L. received the boiling water in his face. His Eye had a narrow escape, & his face was very much hurt & so were they as well as frightened. - D^r Beddoes says "the great source of injury is too long protracted bathing or swimming¹⁶ it requires a hardy frame to resist for any length of time the influence of a medium which must subduct the heat of the body so rapidly

God bless you my Dearest Ever yours Honeysuckle

[address panel:]
W. H. F. Talbot Esq^r
Rev^d. D^r. Butler's ¹⁷
Harrow
Middlesex
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[written in another hand on verso of address panel:]
Malvern June 23. 1812 - Jan - June 1812.