Thursday Feb. 11. 1836 –
Lacock
My Dear Mother
We leave this for Southampton Saturday, stay a day there with Mrs Mundy <1> and proceed to London on Monday, where we mean to stay a month or so till you want the house. We have had a very severe winter, two falls of snow, the last one prodigious, especially about Chervill [?]<2> & Beckhampton where the roads were blocked up some time – Sir C. Lemon <3> was made prisoner by the snow at Abbotsbury <4> at the critical moment when his vote was wanted in the House of Commons – We had warm weather between the two snows, which was very trying to the constitution of all the plants in my garden. Accordingly heaps of them were slain. The snow likewise did great damage by its weight, the arbor vitæ opposite the nuns’ kitchen was thrown down & uprooted; the great juniper near it was much crushed – I have had both of them set up again. A bough was torn off from a red cedar, &c. &c. The snowdrops are now in great beauty, they are as numerous as ever – The crocusses have just begun to flower & the hepaticas. Constance <5> is making herself a garden next to my botanic garden, between it & the church. It promises to be very pretty. I have coming into flower out of doors the Balearic Honeysuckle of which I brought the berries from Nice, where I gathered them in a hedge 2 years ago. I thought they would not turn out the common English sort, coming from so far, so I sowed them at a venture. Barton <6> has ruined me by building a great redbrick house in front of the Abbey – What shall I do? Fifty large trees moved by my transplanting machine might weaken the effect. Let me hear your plans, I expect you will leave Nice on the 1st of March & stop at Paris some time. Travelling is pretty good in March in the S. of France, the winds have by that time dried the roads. How beautiful the Spring must now be with you, are not the hedgebanks enamelled with Anemonies? In the Vallon Obscur <7> there are the most beautiful blue single hepaticas – Did you ever notice the garden Hyacinths that grow wild at Nice; they look something like English bluebells, which latter plant is almost peculiar to England. I have great thoughts of looking out for a residence by the sea coast, I fancy that air would agree with me marvellously better than this – My only regret is that you like this residence though I do not, such is the variety of tastes in this world, & I regret that you should be deprived of what is pleasant and agreeable – But cannot we make some arrangement about it, I hope you will consult Mr F. <8> upon the subject. I should not have staid here this winter, except that my library is here & I have been very busy writing. Fitzsimmons <9> will stay till you return therefore there is no need to give him the 5£ at present. James & Coachman are still in my service I shall transfer them to Mr F. on his arrival – James & Mrs Price <10> are at daggers drawn with each other, as is the usual way with servants – Caroline <11> has been visiting at Saltram & amusing herself. Concerning the rest of the family & its branches nihil scio. <12>
Your affte Son
Henry
Miladi
Miladi Feilding
Poste Restante
Nice
par Antibes
(France)
Notes:
1. Sarah Leaper Mundy, née Newton (d. 10 March 1836), WHFT's mother in law.
2. Just possibly might be Cherrill, ie, modern Cherhill.
3. Sir Charles Lemon (1784–1868), politician & scientist; WHFT’s uncle.
4. Abbotsbury, Dorset: home of William Thomas Horner Fox Strangways
5. Constance Talbot, née Mundy (1811–1880), WHFT’s wife.
6. Thomas Barton, listed as a tenant in 1826.
7. The obscure valley in Nice.
8. Rear Admiral Charles Feilding (1780–1837), Royal Navy; WHFT’s step-father.
9. Cornelius Fitzsimmons, Scottish gardener at Lacock Abbey.
10. Servants.
11. Caroline Augusta Edgcumbe, née Feilding, Lady Mt Edgcumbe (1808–1881); WHFT’s half-sister.
12. I know nothing.