TALBOT653

Harrow ¹
July 2^d 1815

My Dear Mamma,

Lord Northwick ² told me he was certain that the Dukes of Kent & Sussex ³ are coming on Speechday, & will get us a Holiday. I am to expect you & M^r Feilding, ⁴ am I not? Pray send my black Coat, as soon as it is made. I am surprized you should not have heard, what the Courier has been dinning into our ears for this fortnight nearly; that the battle ⁵ was decided at the Village of La belle Alliance; ⁶ - He is quite indignant that the name is not generally adopted. I had rather, I think, spend my holidays with you, than at Penrice, ⁷ this year, unless you stay in London. - I think the laminæ of a foolish man's brain, to be like a coarse net, which lets everything slip through, & retains nothing: but that the brain of a wise man is like a fine sieve which retains the solid information it receives & lets trifles, like dust, pass through - I think the Prayer which we had today, on account of the late Victory, very well written. It does not appear to me that the Government are afraid to publish the returns of killed & wounded, for L^d Wellington ⁸ has not yet sent them. - What do you think of the National Monument ⁹ which is to be erected? - I hope it will be something worthy of the British Nation, & not such an affair as the Chinese Pagoda ¹⁰ is. - I think it should be a Temple. I hope the Prince Regent ¹¹ will not superintend it, for if he does, I am afraid it will be a puerile performance indeed - You do not tell me your opinions concerning Buonaparte. ¹² Why do you think he does not deserve to die: & how can you think him a better man than Richard III? ¹³ I think him far worse than any you mention: & his conduct of late has been extremely mean, & cowardly. Last year you thought him wise, in not having killed himself, as the world expected: but can he hope to dupe Europe twice? - Are we to grant him an asylum here, if he wants it? Except perhaps in the Tower of London. - Tell me about Tom Strangways. ¹⁴

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

P.S. Speeches begin precisely at half past one, on next Thursday, y^e 6^th of July. I speak 9^th

The Lady Elisabeth Feilding
31 Sackville S^t
London