London
14 June
My Dear Henry
I am very much disappointed at your not coming to day - hope deferred is beginning to make my heart sick. However if Caroline <1> is coming to L- abbey so soon, perhaps you had better defer your journey till afterwards, otherwise you will be hurrying away to receive her. Mr F. <2> was much interested by your letter & would have answered it if he had not been expecting to see you daily. He has got a new Doctor who intends to cure him entirely by regime - the consequence at present is that he is extremely low spirited from physical causes the usual stimulus being withdrawn, but the gout is certainly better, & the system seems reasonable, & I hope that after a time he will get used to it. Horatia <3> is better & longing to go out of town. There is little going on that can be called gay. It must be politics that makes the present season so unlike any I ever remember. We went last Saturday to see the show of flowers at the Horticultural There were some beautiful things, but difficult to get at, as there were fifteen thousand people in the Gardens. One lot of Alstromerias got a medal. Petunias Boronias, Gloxsinias [sic], Cactus, & Amaryllis really lovely. The Abbotsbury <4> Gardener was there with some of Lady Ilchester's <5> Mesembryanthemums. Fitzsimons <6> should have come with his Mimulus Cardinalis. We have been to inspect the designs for the Houses of Parliament <7> - what a difficult art is Architecture how seldom is there in it a new idea, & when there is how seldom it is a good one. Besides the one chosen, there are not above 3 or 4 that are tolerable, & our friend Harrison's<8> is no exception. The Architects are appealing to the Nation & Lord Lansdowne <9> told me they have the face to say that public opinion is against Mr Barry, <10> & they hope to reverse the decision as the building is not yet actually begun. It will be something worthy of this age of Reform if the fine Arts are to be judged by ten pound householders! We have been also to see the Watercolour Exhibition, many extremely well executed but such uninteresting subjects. One of them is a view of a turnpike gate on the downs near Brighton with nothing else, not a tree, but many well drawn ruts in the foreground, and all these are by first rate Artists, a tour de force I suppose to shew how well much they can make of Nothing.
One of Mr Selwyn's <11> daughters is going to be married to the son of a Mrs Marryat <12> who possesses a beautiful Garden at Wimbledon, where they first met. It seems to have been quite the loves of the Plants. <13> He is brother to the author. <14> They will not be rich & are going immediately abroad for œconomy. The wedding takes place next Monday & Theresa <15> & Caroline are to be Bridesmaids. all parties seem much pleased. The world are still talking about the inexplicable motives of Lady Mary Herbert <16> in breaking off her marriage with Lord Villiers, <17> and very odd that at the same time Lady Louisa Craven <18> should happen to break off hers with Mr Brande.<19> Cela se gagne apparemment. <20>
I have done as you desire about Fitzsimons He would have had a better chance if my Sister was in England. I had a letter from her on her journey - dated Mond - so far all tolerably well
London June fourteen 1836 W F Strangways <21>
Henry F. Talbot Esq
Lacock Abbey
Chippenham
Notes:
1. Caroline Augusta Edgcumbe, née Feilding, Lady Mt Edgcumbe (1808-1881); WHFT's half-sister.
2. Rear Admiral Charles Feilding (1780-1837), Royal Navy; WHFT's step-father.
3. Henrietta Horatia Maria Gaisford, née Feilding (1810-1851), WHFT's half-sister.
4. Abbotsbury, Dorset: home of William Thomas Horner Fox Strangways.
5. Juliana Maria Strangways, née Digby (d. 1842).
6. Misspelling of Cornelius Fitzsimmons, Scottish gardener at Lacock Abbey.
7. She refers to the 1835 design competition for the new Houses of Parliament building, to replace the one destroyed by fire in 1834.
8. 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.
9. Henry Petty Fitzmaurice, 3rd Marquess of Lansdowne (1780-1863), MP, WHFT's uncle.
10. Sir Charles Barry (1795-1860), chief architect of the British Houses of Parliament.
11. Rev Townshend Selwyn (1783-1853), botanist, Vicar of Kilmington, Somerset, and Canon of Gloucester.
12. Charlotte Marryat. [See Doc. No: 02887].
13. Erasmus Darwin, The Loves of the Plants (1789).
14. Captain Frederick Marryat (1792-1848), son of Joseph Marryat of Wimbledon.
15. Probably Theresa Anna Maria Digby, née Fox Strangways (1814-1874), WHFT's cousin.
16. Probably related to Henry George Herbert, 2nd Earl of Carnarvon (1772-1833).
17. Probably related to George Child Villiers, 5th Earl of Jersey (1773-1859).
18. Probably Louisa Brunton, Countess of Craven (1782-1860), actress.
19. Thomas Brand (1774-1851), 20th Baron Dacre. Lady Craven was quoted that her 'principal objection against him is that he never opens his mouth and that he proscribes any connection with a book.' Sir Herbert Maxwell, The Creevey Papers (New York: E F Dutton & Company, 1904), p. 653.
20. Apparently it is contagious.
21. William Thomas Horner Fox Strangways, 4th Earl of Ilchester (1795-1865), botanist, art collector & diplomat.