Sunday Night
Since I wrote to you <1> to day the rain cleared up & I went out to examine the ha ha marked out by Mcphail <2> which I find is 14 feet long beyond the hurdles & I should think more than twice as wide as the Italian Garden at Bowood, <3> which however I will measure exactly the first time I go there. This would entail more expence of garden men &c to keep so large a flower garden in order, or for mowing it. I remember you once told me you did not mean it to extend beyond the hurdles. Surely you would not wish it so much wider than the Gn at Bowood. I wish you would let me trace it out, which must be a work of consideration & the haha need not be finally dug till your return when you could decide it. In short answer this by return of post I conjure you. I begin to think you are right in avoiding this rainy season here as it would have disagreed with you, but [illegible] this place without you has to me a most gloomy air. I trust you will return with a store of mountain health, & I am sure if you will give yourself an occupation you would have much better health. If you had been a cadet de famille <4> you would never have had an ailment. Write something on the Statistics of Switzerland & you would see how buoyant your spirits would be. Pray call on M. Dumont <5> at Geneva, & see as much of him as you can while you stay. He spoke so kindly of you & your early talents, that I was sorry you did not renew your aquaintance when he was in London this year. He is an excellent man & a clever one, & would have it in his power to shew you the interior of Geneva because one must study Mankind as well as rocks & mountains. I believe I did not mention that [Towns?] lives near the top of Bond Street on the left hand side as you go up –
Tell Gwynne <6> the two new little rugs bought for bedside carpets the other day for Sackville St <7> are to come down here, & she can bring them in the Sociable – Mary the Housemaid knows where they are.
Once more God Bless you – as you never keep a journal you may as well journalize in your letters to me – & some future time they will serve to recall your travels to yourself –
Look for a little note from Mr Harrison <8> to me which is somewhere in some of the rooms, it is about the estimate of prices of Pier glasses in the Drawing rooms in Sackville St, send it me
read the inside of the envelope
I particularly wish your answer about the projection così <9>
[illustration]
only this is drawn without attention to proportions, but you understand
W Henry Fox Talbot Esqr
Sackville Street
London
Notes:
1. See Doc. No: 00446.
2. John Mcphail, Lacock Abbey gardener. [See Doc. No: 01676, Doc. No: 01698, and Doc. No: 01594].
3. Bowood House, nr Calne, Wiltshire, 5 mi NE of Lacock: seat of the Marquess of Lansdowne.
4. Younger son, without income from property.
5. See Doc. No: 01711.
6. Mrs Gwynne (d. winter 1841/1842), lady’s maid, cook and housekeeper to Elisabeth Feilding.
7. 31 Sackville Street, London residence of the Feildings, often used as a London base by WHFT.
8. Henry Harrison (1785?-1865), London architect who was being consulted about proposed changes to the South Front of Lacock Abbey. He was active the parish of St James’s, London, which included Sackville Street. Around 1830, he worked on WHFT’s uncle, Sir Charles Lemon's Carclew House, Cornwall.
9. Written on inside of envelope paper.