[this is written on the same sheet as a note from Capt Feilding - see Doc. No: 01378]
L. Abbey
3d March
My Dear Henry
This place is even more tapissé <1> with Snow drops than it was last year, Quantities have appeared in the back woods where I did not see them before. I have planted to day a large Weeping Ash, under which I hope we shall drink tea some Summer Evening in about two years. Likewise I planted six deciduous Cypress & 40 Alders in that wet place where little else will grow. Tomorrow I am going to plant a great many lilies of the Valley & cut leaved Alder & Irish Ivy
You cannot think how large & wide the South Gallery looks now the pictures are taken down & the furniture gone. I really begin to think it will be too large, and it will be impossible to warm it well without a third fire place which might be pratiqué <2> between the two windows on the south side, which would be very comfortable, & need not be lit except in very cold weather, & would not be more fire places than you would have had with the one in the Gallery & the two in Mr Harrison’s new room. Capisce? <3> and pray do not have the room too high because it is then so very difficult to light. Nothing is so impossible to light chearfully as a very high room.
We have done up your Italian pictures in double Muslin to keep out the dust. The only thing in Sackville Street <4> that will not do very well for the ball is the Carpets, which are horrid, but unless they are like other things very much fallen in price, Mr F. <5> will not hear of any new ones, though in general I must say he is very persuadable. We are doing our best to get ready to set off on Monday
Aff yrs
E F
Henry Fox Talbot Esqr
31. Sackville Street
London
Notes:
1. Carpeted.
2. Carried out, built.
3. Do you understand? 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.
4. 31 Sackville Street, London residence of the Feildings, often used as a London base by WHFT.
5. Rear Admiral Charles Feilding (1780–1837), Royal Navy; WHFT’s step-father.