London
4th June –
My Dear Henry
We admire your California flowers extremely – they are duly installées in a beautiful French Pot à fleurs <1> to be examined by all comers. I sent William’s <2> bouquet to him immediately for fear of its being fané <3> before he saw it, tho’ I suppose Botanists do not regard that. He never thought of sending me Constance’s <4> letter enclosed to him, but after he was gone out to dinner his servant saw it on the table & brought it here at nine o’clock in the Evening. I find I have quite lost my taste for London, and Louisa’s <5> departure for the Continent adds to my degoût pour le grand Monde. <6> Years & absence prevent one’s taking the same interest in people & things that one did formerly – and only that I think it right to shew people that Horatia <7> still exists I should not waste my time in this town. She contrived to catch a torticoli <8> at the Music at Lansdowne House <9> Thursday, & was in consequence not able to go to the ball at Devonshire House the next Night, nor will She be able to go to Lady Londonderry’s <10> to night. It is a sad thing she is so tender, & really unfit to live in the North. She is always frileuse, <11> which Dr Verity said at Paris is entirely owing to the general weakening of the system, which has not power to propel the blood with proper & healthy energy through the heart. It is very puzzling to know what to do about her, because after a three years absence from London she certainly ought to be seen here, and yet I fear she has not strength for much; and if she is seen not looking well it does more harm than good. Her beautiful Paris robes de bal <12> might as well never have been made, for she has not been able to go to one yet. Mr F. <13> is better, but this damp weather is against him. I am glad to find from Constance’s note that she is to have so good a remplaçente <14> for Marianne. <15> I wish anything was settled about L. Abbey the uncertainty fidgets me much & adds to my weight of care I suppose Collins was the Botanic Individual who collected the Specimens, as I see that Collinsonias abound in California. Let me know what day you come, for fear somebody else should have possession of your bed. Why have you never mentioned the seeds I sent you down by Pullen <16> – I hope he took care of them – There is a Man always coming bothering to be paid for your foreign papers
Henry Fox Talbot Esqr
Laycock Abbey
Chippenham
Wilts.
Notes:
1. Flower pot.
2. William Thomas Horner Fox Strangways, 4th Earl of Ilchester (1795–1865), botanist, art collector & diplomat.
3. Faded.
4. Constance Talbot, née Mundy (1811–1880), WHFT’s wife.
5. Louisa Emma Petty Fitzmaurice, née Fox Strangways, Marchioness of Lansdowne (1785-1851), wife of Henry Petty Fitzmaurice, 3rd Marquess of Lansdowne; Lady of the Bedchamber to Queen Victoria, 1837-1838; WHFT's aunt.
6. Distaste for Society.
7. Henrietta Horatia Maria Gaisford, née Feilding (1810–1851), WHFT’s half-sister.
8. A stiff neck.
9. Lansdowne House, London: home of the Marquis of Lansdowne, WHFT's uncle and cousins.
10. Frances Anne Emily Stewart-Vane, née Vane-Tempest (d. 1865), wife of the 3rd Marquess of Londonderry.
11. Sensitive to cold.
12. Ballgowns.
13. Rear Admiral Charles Feilding (1780–1837), Royal Navy; WHFT’s step-father.
14. Replacement.
15. See Doc. No: 03288.
16. William Pullen, Lacock Abbey coachman.