TALBOT8164

Bagnères de Bigorre
Monday July 30^th 1860

My Dear Constance

I was delighted to receive this morning your letter of the 24^th from Oakfield – I had received no letters for a long time previously, the two letters which you say were written to me at Vittoria I am sorry to say were not received though I enquired at the post office there the last thing before starting, on the 19^th July. Nor was the letter delivered to me which you directed to Bayonne last Friday week. I am now almost reestablished in health for instance I took a mountain walk of four miles last Saturday which did me good. but the weather was bitterly cold, a high wind & the clouds sweeping low it ended in a deluge of rain all Sunday.

I did not try the Seabathing at Biarritz, for when I came to look at it I found there were no bathing machines ¹ – The custom of the place is for the bathers to put on their dresses in the Bathing house a large building, & walk then into the Sea, a long way over the Sands, accompanied by a guide, there they walk into the waves as far as they dare, & stop at least ½ an hour in the Sea. You see crowds of people bathing thus all day but for my part I greatly prefer the bathing machine system; – At S^t Sebastian the bathing seems very nicely arranged with rows of machines on the Sands, like the English ones. Bayer ² continues to give me great satisfaction – At 1 oclock today I start for Tarbes & sleep there tonight, I hope thence to reach Paris in 2 days so as to be there on Wedn^y ev^g, please to write to me at Hotel de Londres rue Castiglione: I mean to stop a week in Paris & then return to England.

Your aff^te
Henry