32
These visits gave Soemmerring much pleasure. He
wrote to Schilling about Count Capo d’Istria: “Never
has any body, except yourself, at the first glance
comprehended every thing so clearly, and conceived how easily
the telegraph might be applied on a large scale.”
In 1819 there was a prospect of Soemmerring’s telegraph being brought to London.
Already, on the 3rd of June, 1817, Count Arco, brother to the Countess Montgelas, had introduced to Soemmerring Lionel Hervey,[1] then lately appointed British Secretary of Legation at Munich, in order that he might have an opportunity of seeing the telegraph.
In 1819, on the 10th of May, when Soemmerring was about to go for a time to Frankfort, Count Arco informed
him that Hervey wished to pay him another visit.
- ↑ Lionel Charles Hervey was the grandson of one of the sons of John Hervey, who, in 1714, was created Earl of Bristol. His elder brother, Felton, had, in 1801, adopted the name of Bathurst, in addition to that of Hervey. In Dod’s “Baronetage” it is erroneously stated, that Bathurst had adopted the name of Hervey. He was Aide-de-Camp to the Duke of Wellington at Waterloo, and is one of those who signed the important Convention at Paris, on the 3rd of July, 1815. Lionel Hervey was, from 1820 till 1823, Secretary ot Legation, officiating also, for a time, as Minister, at Madrid; he died in 1843.
