Laycock Abbey
last day of 1845!
My Dear Henry
I hope you will not undo the steps, because architecturally speaking it is an immense gain & a Wiltshire congregation are not learned enough to be influenced in their devotional feelings by such accessoires, I have no doubt they will approach the altar or the Table with precisely the same feelings. Just as the good Catholics have kissed away the foot of St Peter at Rome, who is really all the while an antique Statue of Jupiter. I believe legally nobody can undo anything in a Church, & Horatia hopes you will not have the inclination, as the Steps add so very much to the dignity of the coup d’œil. <1> What glorious Sea side weather this has been! We had a perpetual storm at Bowood <2> for four days. I am in trouble for fear this new Paper will not get safe to your hands. How can it be French with an English water mark? <3> & how can anybody practise the Art in France with your Patent staring them in the face?!! I wrote to you from Bowood to enquire your plans, but you took no notice of my letter
Affly yrs
E F
Mr Rogers was at Bowood & expressed himself in the most flattering manner of you, & ended by inviting you to dine with him whenever you are in London
[envelope]
Henry Fox Talbot Eqr
Post Office
Reading
Notes:
1. The view; the scene.
2. Bowood House, nr Calne, Wiltshire, 5 mi NE of Lacock: seat of the Marquess of Lansdowne.
3. It was a French imitation of Whatmans’ English paper, with a fraudulent watermark. [See Doc. No: 05497].