TALBOT754

Normanton ¹
March 2^d 1817.

My Dear Mamma,

My box came only last week – Everything was very safe & well packed, and I will send the list of Books in my next letter – why did you send me Colquhoun on the Police? ² I am sure I never selected it – Grillo’s Fables ³ did not come, nor my pretty Conciones Latinæ ⁴ – I have looked at the Cape seeds, & think them likely to grow – Some of them are very old looking things. The names appealed to me, as far as I could judge from the appearance of the Seeds, to be in general, right enough – I want to know, whether anybody, & who, has unsatisfied claims on the said seeds – Those you sent me were not a quarter of the whole, have you given away all the rest? The plates M^r Hooker ⁵ sent me, were most beautiful. Pray send me Brown’s Prodromey ⁶ whenever you have anything else to send with it – What Plates do you speak of, as come with it? I have not heard a syllable about William ⁷ yet – Pray tell me where he is, & what adventures he has met with – I did not see in the Paper any high words between M^r Lamb & Sir F. Burdett ⁸ – what passed between them? My map of the Sky came very safe – I have been amusing myself with predicting eclipses like Thales of old–⁹ Pray ask M^r Feilding ¹⁰ when he goes into any Bookseller’s Shop to look at the Nautical Almanack ¹¹ for next year which of course is published, & tell me whether is not an Eclipse of the Moon on April 20^th and another on October 13^th for such I predict, & wish to know if my predictions are true – Tell Car. & Hor. ¹² I owe them a letter, –

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

N. B. The Eclipses are always near the Beginning of the N. Almanack – I like the new Italian Dictionary very much – Pray answer all the questions asked in this letter –

The Lady Elis^th Feilding
31 Sackville S^t
London
STAMFORD ¹³