Laycock Abbey
1st October
My Dear Henry
On our return from Redlynch <1> this Eveg I found your welcome Letter, for I began to think it very long since we had heard anything of you & I cannot now conceive how it happens that you complain of want of time to write more fully when there is nothing to hurry you but your own will and you must sometimes stop to rest & wash, la Lavandagie is quelquefois <2> indispensable even in the mountains. Constance <3> wrote a most charming letter to Horatia <4> which gave us such a good idea of what you were about. Her letters are so agreeable I wish she would repeat them. We suffered less in that dreadful storm on the first of last month than might have been supposed no tree of any consequence was blown down the tops of some were cut off & some already killed by Ivy came down from having no live root to hold by. The damage in all parts of England was very great. Lord Fordwich’s marriage with Lady Anne de Grey <5> takes place on the 8th & they set out immediately to winter at Rome. I sent you a long list of marriages just before I left London, did you ever receive it? Many of them were your acquaintances, & old partners. Olivia de Ros <6> the Maid of Honour is to marry Mr Wellesley, Lord Cowley’s <7> son. There is nobody with us at present but Lady Charlotte Butler, <8> who enjoys the Country & admires the Abbey. She is very much to be liked upon a nearer view, She has been here already three weeks & in that time one knows a person more than in twenty years of London. We went to Redlynch for a few days purposely for me to indulge meditations on former times. The Place looked so pretty I could not but regret its deserted state. The Lansdownes <9> are just returned from Ireland where they have been this last Month. It seems almost a pity not to go to Sicily now you are so near, unless indeed you have secret information that Parliament meets before February. Our going abroad in the Spring is the most vague uncertain thing possible, I do not at all incline towards the scheme of going to Paris in April because the season there is then over, and all society at an end. I imagine you & Caroline <10> & all met together at this moment at Varese! dear Varese! but if you are not at the Villa Serbelloni <11> the illusion will be very incomplete. Pray write to me from Genoa & tell me the alterations that have taken place in the Casa Fraveza Piazza delle Carmine. Of course you will not fail to visit the Porta degli Angeli<12> & dig up Orchis’s, tho’ they are out of blow. We attended as in duty bound the Devizes races on Roundaway Down, The were very bad & I should think will hardly be repeated another Year. Mr Estcourt was there but Lord Andover the Steward did not attend<13> I hope Constance has sketched a great deal & that you give her time for it. As circumstances often occur to prevent people going the same tour again it would be a pity not to take as many sketches this time as she possibly can. They seem to like the Bride at Moreton, <14> & my sister<15> says she contributes much to general conversation & adds to a Party she is so lively, but she has not yet had time to scan her mind –
aff
E F
M.
Monsr H. Fox Talbot
Poste Restante
Gênes
Italie
Notes:
1. Redlynch, Somerset, seat of the Earls of Ilchester (Barons of Redlynch).
2. She meant that clothes-washing was sometimes necessary. Lavandagie, for washing clothes, was a word fabricated by Lady Feilding, probably based on lavandière, a laundress.
3. Constance Talbot, née Mundy (1811–1880), WHFT’s wife.
4. Henrietta Horatia Maria Gaisford, née Feilding (1810–1851), WHFT’s half-sister.
5. Viscount Fordwich (1806–1856), MP, and his wife Lady Anne Florence Fordwich, née Grey.
6. Olivia Cecilia (1807–1885), daughter of Charlotte, Baroness de Ros.
7. Henry Richard Wellesley, 1st Earl Cowley (1804–1884).
8. Lady Charlotte Talbot, née Butler (1809–1846), wife of CRM Talbot.
9. 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.
10. Caroline Augusta Edgcumbe, née Feilding, Lady Mt Edgcumbe (1808–1881); WHFT’s half-sister.
11. In 1823, Lady Elisabeth and Charles Feilding enjoyed a three month stay at the Villa Serbelloni where they were joined by WHFT. The Villa Serbelloni is in Varese, in Lombardy, Italy, north of Milan and near Lake Como, and is known today as Palazzo Estense. Built as a baroque palace by Francesco III d’Este, Duke of Modena and Governor of the Duchy of Milan (1698-1780), it went by descent from his third wife by morganatic marriage, Renata Teresa d’Harrach, Princess Melzi, to Rosina Zinzendorf, Countess Serbelloni. The Countess allowed wealthy paying guests to stay there. Although this was their only stay in the Villa, the house remained strong in their family memory. WHFT showed it to his new wife at just about the time Lady Elisabeth was composing this letter, and just as he was conceiving of the idea of photography. His sister Horatia made a point of visiting it in 1847.
12. Porta degli Angeli. Gate of the Angels, one of the ancient gates in the walls of Genoa.
13. Thomas Henry Sutton Sotheron Bucknall Estcourt (1801–1876), MP. Charles John Howard (1805-1876), 17th Earl of Suffolk, 10th Earl of Berkshire, styled Viscount Andover 1820-1851.
14. Moreton, Dorset: home of the Frampton family. In May 1833, Lady Fieilding’s nephew, Henry Frampton (1804-1879), married Charlotte Louisa Blencowe (1806-1887).
15. Lady Harriot Louisa Frampton, née Fox Strangways (1778 - 6 Aug 1844); dau of Henry Thomas Fox Strangways, 2nd Earl of Ilchester & Mary Theresa O'Grady; m. James Frampton (1769-1855) in 1799.
16. Amélina Petit De Billier, ‘Mamie’, ‘Amandier’ (1798–1876), governess and later close friend of the Talbot family [See Amélina's journal].