Laycock Abbey
6th April
My Dear Henry
You seem to have forgot [sic] that I Shewed you the Drawing for the door before you went away, and you approved & said it should go all the way to the top, instead of being divided as Gale <1> proposed, & you afterwards wrote from London to say you liked it to be deep set which it is to be, for it is not yet up, tho’ it is finished. Oaks as you say, move perfectly well, that is they live & grow after 3 years the same as if nothing had happened. The large Oak you put in front of the house did no more than live for the first three years, it did not make the slightest progress now it grows. Mr Frampton <2> must have some knowledge of these matters having been a planter for more than 50 years. Your surprize about the Cloister door amused me much, you ought to have been an Antidiluvian, you take one year to think, another to consider, another to project, another to order, but really in this case it is no less than nine years the said Cloister Door has been in contemplation. – I shall be very glad to see you & William <3> next Tuesday, it is the very day Horatia <4> comes. Pray don’t delay, because on the Saturday we intend being in town. Mr F. <5> kept his bed yesterday & I do not think he will get up to day. This last batch of Snow & Northeast winds has disagreed with him very much & rivetted his resolution to pass next winter in the South. He has been very ailing ever since March set in. I shall be vexed if you do not come. Our Wiltshire Alps are still tipt with Snow. This by way of tempting you down. There are many things I should like to shew you. As for Mr Awdry he is more out of my good graces than ever. He positively makes my blood boil. I am certain he has lost you hundreds by his extraordinary softness & folly, as well as by his neglect of little things. The Euphrates seeds are beginning to shew signe de vie. <6> Every thing out of doors remains stationary. How can they bud or bloom when it freezes every night? The weeping cypress have suffered for the first time, every branch is frost bitten at the end. This they will recover. The Common Laurels & yew trees have whole branches killed by the frost. This is unusual
Let me know if you are coming & when
Henry Fox Talbot Esqr
65. Harley Street
London
Notes:
1. John Gale, carpenter at Lacock.
2. Probably James Frampton (1769–1855), High Sheriff.
3. William Thomas Horner Fox Strangways, 4th Earl of Ilchester (1795–1865), botanist, art collector & diplomat.
4. Henrietta Horatia Maria Gaisford, née Feilding (1810–1851), WHFT’s half-sister.
5. Rear Admiral Charles Feilding (1780–1837), Royal Navy; WHFT’s step-father.
6. Sign of life.