Melbury <1>
Monday 3d November
My Dear Henry
The Post is charged from Sherborne to Dorchester, by which the letters gain a day in time & you will get this twenty four hours sooner than you calculated. You have not I think received your full complement of letters either at Paris or Brighton, or you would have known that we have been here for this last fortnight. We return to Moreton <2> next Thursday the 6th But if you will let me opine, I should say come here as soon as you can get out of London, & visit your Uncle <3> with whom you have not kept up as much intercourse as you might advantageously have done, & who is everything that is affectionate in his feelings & expressions about you. After passing a few days here, you could join us at Moreton.
You will find Kit <4> here, who says he would write to you, but that he expects to see you so soon.
He accompanies your Uncle Ilchester <5> & the Belmores <6> to Plymouth to see them off, but that day is not fixed, as Government is not ready with the despatches.
You will not wait for a letter from your uncle in form, that would be too ceremonious & too old fashioned between such near relations, particularly in these days of sans gêne. <7>–
I hope you are comfortable in Sackville Street. <8> Answer this by return of post
Affly yrs
You had better come by the Salisbury & Exeter mail to Dorchester – or the Magnet Weymouth coach if you prefer day light.
If you write by return of post I shall get your answer Wednesday at Noon. – I think you could get here as quick yourself
Lord Corry & Mr Corry & Captain Corry <9> have all departed
Dorchester, Novbr three 1828 Ilchester,
H. Talbot Esqr
31 Sackville St
London
Notes:
1. Melbury, Dorset: one of the Fox Strangways family homes; WHFT was born there.
2. Moreton, Dorset: home of the Frampton family.
3. Possibly Henry Petty Fitzmaurice, 3rd Marquess of Lansdowne (1780–1863), MP, WHFT’s uncle.
4. Christopher Rice Mansel Talbot (1803–1890), immensely wealthy landowner, mathematician & politician; WHFT’s Welsh cousin.
5. Henry Stephen Fox Strangways, 3rd Earl of Ilchester (1787–1858).
6. Somerset Lowry-Corry, 2nd Earl Belmore (1774–1841), Governor of Jamaica, and his wife, Lady Juliana, Countess Belmore, née Butler (1783-1861).
7. Over-familiarity.
8. 31 Sackville Street, London residence of the Feildings, often used as a London base by WHFT.
9. Armar Lowry-Corry (1801-1845), Viscount Corry until 1841, then 3rd Earl Belmore; Henry Thomas Lowry-Corry (1803–1873); Capt Armar Lowry-Corry (1793-1855).