TALBOT944

Caius College, Cambridge
Dec^r 11^th 1821.

My dear Talbot

I have long delayed to answer your kind letter from Nice, for which delay the more apologies are necessary as your progress is Arabic has been stopped by it - Professor Lee ¹ was very kind to me on my calling on him to obtain the information you wished - He recommends the Grammar ² published by the Propaganda Society at Rome as decidedly the best, price about 2½ Guineas.

There is also an abridgement of D^r Sacy's Grammar by Rosenmüller, ³ about 25 shillings. Jahn's Chrestomathia and Lexicon; ⁴ Vienna. 1802. and for reading, the Koran by Ludovico Maracci; ⁵ Les seances de Hariri, ⁶ publiées a arabe & par le Baron Silvester de Sacy - Paris 1821.

Prof. Lee has published edited a sylloge librorum orientalum by Jahn; ⁷ which I will send you if I meet with an opportunity -

Your Tour in Switzerland appears to have been complete; I do not expect to leave our shores again till the Summer of 1823: as I shall have plenty of reading in Classics Mathematics and Divinity - I am examiner in the College this year, at which I make my debut on Thursday - Arnold ⁸ is going on very well, but the weak state of his eyes is a great loss to him at this critical moment; I hope in a few weeks time or months at most, he will be Fellow - I am Dean at present, & as far as human events can be foreseen shall be Tutor in Spring, the Senior tutor - Your next letter must be directed to Rev^d C Porter - I am not in Priests Order yet, but am qualified to wear a Cardinals Hat -

Were you not surprised to hear of the new Fellow at Trinity this year, Baynes of our year. Professor Viner is dead, Woodhouse ⁹ gets the Plumian Professorship, & Turton ¹⁰ succeeds to the Lucasian - We still confidently expect to have the Senior Wrangler this year; & our Freshmans year is ¹¹

Dreadful accounts from Ireland,¹² fresh murders in every days paper; and there is a great outcry against the Conceit and conciliatory measures that had been adopted by C. ¹³ [illegible] the Secretary in Ireland; the fruits are now seen - Reconciliations with such an ignorant barbarian unprincipled set as the lower orders in Tipperary & Clare & Limerick is impossible; but I dare not say that their improvement is sufficiently attended to -

Let me hear from you an account of your pursuits and how you like Italy; and which of the numerous delights, offered to the Scholar in that rich country, you enjoy most - But why are you not a more dutiful son to Alma Mater?

I am ashamed to send you so [illegible] a letter from so great a distance - Let me hear from you soon -

very sincerely yours
Charles Porter

Poste Restante
Al Signore
Signore W. H. Talbot
Nizza
(Nice Maritime)
Italie