Melbury <1>
Thursday
My Dear Henry
We are just going to set off, but en attendant <2> I must write you a few words. Mr F. <3> would not upon principle say write anything to you about Laycock because he said you were gone to Switzerland for your health, & if Wiltshire ideas pursued you there, the air of the Alps would do you no good. Nor would he say anything to you here, not to interrupt your pleasure at Melbury by “parish business” <4> but as I do not think it will have any such effect in Cornwall I like you to know that Redding <5> was kept on two weeks longer than Mr Harrison <6> said, from the absolute necessity of not leaving the things unfinished & open to the weather, all which you will see & understand better than I can explain upon paper. The sunk fence was contracted for according to your plan, at least a certain part of it, the rest that about which you know there was no difference of opinion, the rest left till you finally decide yourself. This will enable you to lay out the ground before the house sooner, and I took upon me to have the pond emptied because it could only be done in our absence on account of the smell, & I know you wished it. The new head was to be built by contract, but you had can always let the water in again if you don’t like it.
Mr F. thinks the two weeks above mentioned will not come to more than you calculated upon spending on the job to be done by the constant Mason all the Summer if we had remained at home, as you intended. He is naturally anxious you should find all done for the best, & as you would probably have done had you been at home and he would not have anything of course gone on with while we were away.
I am sorry you can give so short a time to Carclew. <7> after all nothing agrees with you like Mobility I advise you not to crib a day from Sir Charles <8> for the sake of Kit, <9> because you know how improbable it is your Aunt Harriot <10> will let him come away as long as her gay party lasts. You recollect you particularly [w]ished<11> to have the sunk fence done this Summer before the house, if it had not been for contrariety & opinions, so I hope you will be pleased that part is done. I certainly could have amused myself more than usually well this Summer at L. Abbey with trying out the Flower Garden &c but as our travels have answered so well to C. & H. <12> I must not regret them. You are going to a place famous for all sorts of horses Brighton. I should not wonder if you could pick up a poney & a horse for yourself
Dorchester Novr thirteen 1828 Belmore <13>
Henry Fox Talbot Esqre
Carclew
Penrhyn
Notes:
1. Melbury, Dorset: one of the Fox Strangways family homes; WHFT was born there.
2. In the meantime.
3. Rear Admiral Charles Feilding (1780–1837), Royal Navy; WHFT’s step-father.
4. See Doc. No: 02287.
5. David Reading, builder, working on Lacock Abbey.
6. 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.
7. Carclew, Cornwall, 3 mi N of Penryn: seat of Sir Charles Lemon.
8. Sir Charles Lemon (1784–1868), politician & scientist; WHFT’s uncle.
9. Christopher Rice Mansel Talbot (1803–1890), immensely wealthy landowner, mathematician & politician; WHFT’s Welsh cousin.
10. Lady Harriet Frampton, née Fox Strangways (d. 1844) .
11. Text torn away under seal.
12. Caroline Augusta Edgcumbe, née Feilding, Lady Mt Edgcumbe (1808–1881); WHFT’s half-sister, and Henrietta Horatia Maria Gaisford, née Feilding (1810–1851), WHFT’s half-sister.
13. Somerset Lowry-Corry, 2nd Earl Belmore (1774–1841), Governor of Jamaica. [See Doc. No: 01733, and Doc. No: 01730]