TALBOT987

London.
June 29^th 1822

My Dear M^r Feilding,

Your letters of the 15^th arrived today, they come very regularly in a fortnight. M^rs Campbell ¹ recommended me a very good servant, a Corsican, who spoke English & French indifferently and Italian & German apparently very fluently – He had been Pozzo di Borgo’s ² servant, & in the battles off St Vincents & at Waterloo ³ & had a high character from many people – I told him I would engage him if Nicolle ⁴ did not come, but he had another offer & would wait no longer – So away he went last Tuesday, & today (Saturday) comes a letter from Nicolle saying he is very ill at Paris & cannot come – I shall therefore look out for another directly – There is plenty of choice: applicants are as thick as mustard seed. Montgomerie ⁵ has not yet got his answer from the Bishop He has sent in 2 Certificates of ill health; one from D^r Williams the other from his Apothecary in the Country. Thrupp⁶ was to have done the carriage by this time, but coachmakers are always longer than they say. I have been for a week at Normanton with M^r Bonney: ⁷ which was very pleasant. I went thro’ Cambridge, both going & coming, & met with a hearty welcome from my friends there. M^r Bonney gave me my medal, which the Vice Chancellor had given him to keep for me till I came to England. It is very handsome, large & heavy, solid gold. I have ordered my Booksellers’ at Paris, Treüttel & Würz ⁸ to send me several periodical works, such as the Paris monthly review, Verneur’s Journal des Voyages, ⁹ &c. He was to direct them all to Florence Pray enquire for them at the Poste Restante. – I sent you in the parcel to Leghorn, a thermometer such as you desired. Awdry¹⁰ has been down here & I had a good deal of talk with him, which ended in reducing the rents about 10 per cent. or 300£, which diminishes my income to about 1300£ or 1400£, clear. Repairs are extremely heavy at Lacock, last year I paid no less than £820 for repairs & poor rates, &c. However in spite of this, the money accumulates in my banker’s hands, so that in the account he sent me in, the other day, there is a balance in my favour of £1258 not to mention £4253 in the Stocks. So you see you may ‘make yourself easy,’ as they say, about the 500£. Next year my Aunt Harriot ¹¹ means to take the house, at least so she says – She & my Aunt Mary ¹² are gone out of Town. Sir Christopher ¹³ is gone to Paris, to the astonishment of himself & all his friends – He will meet Jane ¹⁴ there. Kit ¹⁵ was in Town for a day or two, & is gone to Southampton, where he takes yacht & goes round the Land’s End to Penrice. ¹⁶ R. Quin & L^y H. P. Gallwey ¹⁷ are in Town. It seems that William has left Const. ¹⁸ & may be expected to pass thro’ Florence in his way home. Your news about M^rs Bunnett arrived long, long before your letter. I have begun Hebrew; it looks rather hard, but they say it soon becomes easy. I have a great aversion to having a master, it always fatigues me very much – I have however taken one, to teach me the received pronunciation; for I am sure nobody can tell how the Israelites really pronounced. All the Grammars give different ways of pronouncing the same vowel; & there is one letter which my grammar says can only be compared to the bleating of a calf. By comparing Proper Names it appears that the Translators of the Bible usually omit this letter entirely; but when a word begins with it, they express it by G, as in the word Gomorrah. We have had hot weather in Town; the thermometer ranging from 70 to 80. It is now changed to cool, cloudy, & raining. I send you an Epigram from y^e Newspapers, on Marsh.

Yours affect^ly
W.H.F.Talbot

Question
What is the View from Peterboro’ Cathedral?

Answer
A dreary prospect, soil unkind,
A produce mean & harsh:
All this methinks and worse you’ll find
In Peterborough Marsh. –

A Monsieur
Monsieur le Capitaine Feilding
Poste Restante
Florence
Italie