Monday Night. 17th Sepr
My Dearest Henry
This is to remind you that the Gardener should be an unmarried Man, because he ought to sleep in the house as a Guard when we are away. It would perhaps be better he should always live in the house & then you would only have to give him board wages when we are from home. If you do not find a Scotch one you quite like, Mr Selwyn <1> will inquire at Longleat to which he lives close, & they are not likely to exact as much as one taken from a Nursery Garden. All yesterday I was very dismal, as I always am the first day of your departure, it was a melancholy looking day, there was a brouillard physique as well as morale. <2> To day I am better, we met the whole party from Bowood <3> at Draycot & had a pic nic on the grass. The weather was beautiful & that Park is one of the finest in Wiltshire, wild, full of fern & Deer, & magnificent Oaks. The Lansdownes <4> dine here Friday perhaps you can be here, he put it off till the latest day he could in hopes of seeing you, he is going up to town, but comes soon back again & seems much disposed to dine here as often as he can, & Louisa <5> laughs at the idea of being frightened going back in the dark.
Mr F. <6> begs you will go to Mr Gardner in Regent Street & ask what progress is making in the Ordnance Maps,<7> the two we want, and he wishes you would look at a Patent Lamp, newly invented in Regent Street near your optician,<8> It burns with Spermaceti & he thinks it would be economical for the Gallery, if you like to bring down one of the plainest. We saw it burning at the Inn at Windsor & it gave a brilliant light. I am afraid I cannot write such interesting details as Lady Ivory <9> but I may tell you as she would have done, that I discovered the sheep had broke through the old rails & were all in the garden, so I never rest[ed] <10> till I routed everybody out to dis[lodge?] them & patch up the peccant paling.<11> What pretty alliteration! - Lord L. <12> seems very anxious you should consult Brodie, <13> & I hope you have by this time, & that tomorrow's post will bring me their opinion, I include [Harrison?]. Ask William <14> for the title of the Book he told me of, with critical notes. I invited Mr & Mrs Scrope <15> to meet them Friday, thinking that was what you would like, if by any unlucky circumstances you cannot come I shall comfort myself that they will all in all probability dine here often again. I should be very sorry you left London sooner than you intend if the change of air does you good but your absence will be a great blank you yourself only can judge of the pour & the contre. If you have time bring Mr F. 100 engraved bits of paper to stick in books, from Halfhide's in Piccadilly,<16> he has the plate & knows what he sent before with the Hapsburg Eagle but never mind if it plagues you
William Henry Fox Talbot Esqr
31. Sackville Street
London
Notes:
1. Possibly Rev Townshend Selwyn (1783-1853), botanist & Canon of Gloucester.
2. A physical fog as well as a mental one; a fog over the land as well as over the spirits.
3. Bowood House, nr Calne, Wiltshire, 5 mi NE of Lacock: seat of the Marquess of Lansdowne. Draycot House and Park, Draycot Cerne, near Chippenham, Wiltshire.
4. Henry Petty Fitzmaurice, 3rd Marquess of Lansdowne (1780-1863), MP, WHFT's uncle; and his wife, Louisa Emma, née Fox Strangways, Marchioness of Lansdowne (1785-1851); Lady of the Bedchamber to Queen Victoria, 1837-1838; WHFT's aunt.
6. Rear Admiral Charles Feilding (1780-1837), Royal Navy; WHFT's step-father.
7. J Gardner, 163 Regent St, London; the Ordnance Survey maps were so called because they were surveyed by an Army department.
8. The Argyll Table Lamp, invented and sold by Sameul Parker, 12, Argyll Place, Regent Street, London.
9. Anne Ivory, née Talbot (1665-1720), wife of Sir John Ivory (1656-1694). Lady Elisabeth's knowledge of her predecessor's experience at Lacock came from reading old family letters.
10. Text torn away under seal.
11. A sinful paling (fence made of pointed sticks) that has fallen from grace through dilapidation.
12. Henry Petty Fitzmaurice, 3rd Marquess of Lansdowne (1780-1863), MP, WHFT's uncle.
13. Possibly William Bird Brodie (1780-1863), MP.
14. William Thomas Horner Fox Strangways, 4th Earl of Ilchester (1795-1865), botanist, art collector & diplomat.
15. George Julius Duncombe Poulett Scrope (1797-1876), MP & scientist, and his wife Emma Phipps Scrope.
16. George Halfhide & Co, seal engravers.