TALBOT963

Nice -
April 14^th 1822

Tu vois, mon cher Henri, que je suis fidèle à ma promesse en t'écrivant, mais je suis vraiment trop bonne, puisque ce n'était qu'à condition que tu m'écrirois le premier; au reste comme [illegible deletion] tu entends mieux l'anglais je continuerai dans cette langue. ¹ Since we left Nismes we saw nothing new except the road from Aix to Brignolles which is very pretty & covered with wood; Saw nothing worth remark in this town except a very very old tree on the corso. - On crossing the Estrelles, who should we meet all of a sudden, but Lord Carnarvon & the Lady Herberts ² going to Paris where I dare say you will see them, & about a quarter of an hour afterwards we met Lady Davy ³ all alone in her green calèche, who told us she intended going to Aix, Gap & Grenoble, & from thence to Lyons; she likewise told us she had been as far as Coni[?], on horseback with M^r Ward & Lord Colchester, ⁴ who came back with her, but M^r Ward, I believe, intends going to Genoa, on his way to Turin & Paris.

At the same time Lady Davy advised us to go to Grasse; so ha after having dined at Cannes, we went out of the way to into a pretty little valley, in which Grasse is situated; the road winds so, that we did not arrive till late at the Hôtel des Ministres, a very nice, clean, new, comfortable inn; - It was a great pity that it rained the next morning, so that unluckily we saw nothing. I must only advise you to go & see it whenever you can, & in the first place because it is surrounded by a very pretty country, & secondly, because I never saw such a quantity of beautiful & curious flowers of all colours; a species of Convolvolous [sic] I think I never saw before, & a sort of ridiculous yellow flower, that hangs like bells, surrounded at the top with black, & lower down with green leaves like those of Barberries. I send you a very beautiful sort of crimson flower, that grows about a foot high; with leaves like those of a Narcissus; I am not sure that it is not the same of which M^r Montgomerie ⁵ found only one specimen near the Thuner-See. I saw besides all sorts of blue flowers, some like small anemonies [sic], & other [sic] like Viper's bugloss at a distance, but which are quite different on a near approach, but as they are now dead I cannot send them to you; as I have said a great deal about flowers; therefore I must now proceed to the News of Nice; On arriving we found that the Mildmays ⁶ were gone to Genoa; where they were soon followed by M^r & M^rs Bligh. ⁷ Baron Arnstein took a felucca & ten sailors, & set t off for Floren[ce]⁸ determined to get there bon gré, malgré, ⁹ whether the wind w[as] fair or not, & as it happened it has been contrary all the time though he has now been gone a week. We shall go our[selves] very soon to Genoa, but how, we cannot tell; either, we shall set off in an open boat & stop disembark at night at the best inns; or we shall go by land over the Col de tende, or half in a boat & half in a carriage, or in a frigate of the royal navy of Sardinia. Now it is your turn to fulfill [sic] your promise & to write as soon as possible; as yet we have received no news from either Mama ¹⁰ or you; I hope you take care of her; as much as if we were there. I hope you see now that I have not forgotten English.

Goodbye, my dear Henry, believe me always your affectionnate [sic] Sister -
Caroline Augusta Feilding

P.S. Mlle Amélina ¹¹ desires to be remembered to you.
Horatia ¹² t'embrasse de tout son c œur, et te prie de penser quelquefois à elle. - ¹³

Monsieur ¹⁴
Monsieur Henri Talbot. esq^r

Poste restante.
Paris.