Sunday 16 Jan^{y <1>}

My Dear Henry

Have you been to look at Laycock Abbey & to plant some more opposite the house, if ever you are to live there I wish this had been done long ago, & that I had not been thwarted <sic> in my good intentions on this subject by the froid calcul ^<2> of a Master in Chancery, for with trees to gain time is everything & one cannot be happy you know with a turnpike road in view. But then you must marry a moderate heiress, for sine pennis volare haud facile est ^<3>, & of all houses that requires the most fire to warm it & the most lamps to light it in proportion to its size e il denaro fa tutto ^<4>.

Your narcissus from “the Lord knows where” is in full bloom <illegible> ^<5> now perfuming the air of this ro<om>

W. Henry Fox Talbot Esq^r
Bowood
Calne

---

Notes:

1. See Doc. No: 04967.

2. Cold calculations.

3. It is scarcely easy/possible to fly without feathers.

4. And money does everything.

5. Text obscured under seal.