TALBOT7022

Turin
Monday July 17^th 1854

My Dear Constance

I have returned here after a short excursion – Your letter of the 10^th arrived here on the 14^th at 7 oclock in the evening, as appears by the postmark upon it – This appears to me very quick, even in these days of accelerated communications. The Shakespears who dwell in the cottage at Applethwaite I think must be cousins of mine – My aunt Mary Davenport married John Shakespear, whom I remember to have seen in his old age – Their daughter Mary Anne I knew very well. She was a great favourite with Aunt Mary and very often paid visits to Penrice Castle. She married Rev^d M^r Thackeray and died leaving two sons. John Shakespear’s sons went to India and settled there. ¹ I think your friends at Applethwaite must be branches of the same family, perhaps he is John Shakespear’s grandson.

I am glad to hear such a good account of Charles – indeed all M^r Williams’s reports of him have been good – I am writing with curious ink, which I suppose is an Italian invention. It is brown when written, but in less than one minute turns black I wonder what is the reason. Any one wishing to enjoy full summer heat should come here – There is a glow of heat which penetrates everything, it is only in the evenings or in the mountains, that there is any coolness to be found. The Alps encircle Piedmont on 3 sides. Piedmont itself is a hot dusty plain, so extraordinarily uniform that the traveller scarcely knows where he is when the mountains are veiled by haze as they generally are in the middle of the day – To add to the uniformity all the cultivation is in straight lines – flat fields with straight rows of willow trees or mulberry trees, or vines, I wonder the peasantry can recognise their own fields from their neighbours, for to me all look alike and one village much like another – The bed of the river is 50 times wider than the river itself at this time of year, and consists of dry white pebbles very glaring to the eye – I speak of the river Stura I think it is called which passes Cuneo, but the others are not unlike it – Consequently nobody visits the plains of Piedmont except to cross them & get to the other side. When you reach the other side & the ground begins to rise, the scenery changes & becomes beautiful, & the vegetation changes almost entirely – this is a country admirably adapted for railroads from its flatness & uniformity the traveller aspires to get over the ground. There is a rail all the way from here to Genoa which takes you in 5 or 6 hours – Adieu

Your aff^te
Henry

I wrote 4 letters to Gretabank last week, all from Turin.