link to Talbot Project home page link to De Montfort University home page link to Glasgow University home page
Project Director: Professor Larry J Schaaf
 

Back to the letter search >

Document number: 05793
Date: 14 Jul 1875
Recipient: TALBOT William Henry Fox
Author: FRAMPTON Louisa Charlotte
Collection: British Library, London, Manuscripts - Fox Talbot Collection
Collection number: Acc 22845 (envelope)
Last updated: 12th November 2012

My dear Henry,

I shall be much gratified if Mr Macmillan should accept my Memoir of Mrs Campbell,<1> as it will be a great advantage to me to get it into a Magazine of such repute; but he says nothing of his terms of remuneration, and I should wish to know before he retains it, what is his rate of pay, which of course is of consequence to every Contributor. I have had a very good offer from an Edinburgh Editor, to whom I have been recommended by Sir Robert Christison<2> if I chose to send my Paper in that direction; but I shall feel pleased to know that it is published by Mr Macmillan if, as I have very little doubt, he is as liberal as other Editors. Pray ascertain his terms for me, and let me know.

In answer to your question, you will find if you read my Paper carefully, that I have written Mrs Campbell’s statement separately, of the Story of Gustavus 3rd as related in her presence to the Princess by Colonel Addenbrooke;<3> the memorandum of which in her handwriting, is in my possession.

The very curious Prophecy foretelling the same event, I took from the French, and inserted it as being very remarkable and appropriate to my Memoir, in so far as it concerned an event which had been recorded by Mrs Campbell as having been related to the Princess Charlotte. I copied it from the original French, from a work by several Authors, entitled "Un Diamant à dix facettes," which contained various tales by F. Souliè and others, but I believe the "Vision" to have been by A. Dumas, père, but I am not certain whether it was written by him or F. Souliè.<4> I am quite certain of having copied it from that work, as I kept my French copy for years, with the title of the work from whence it had been taken. Then some of my cousins & others not reading French, I translated it, & I believe I have destroyed the original French copy.

About a year since, however, my sister Mrs Mundy,<5> procured a very old copy of the abovementioned work, and it was not found in that edition, so I altered it to "From the French," instead of "From Un Diamant à dix facettes," lest my reference to that work should be doubted, but it was certainly in the edition that I read many years ago, from Messrs Booth & Churton Library<6> I think – but from a London Library at all events, which to the best of my recollections contained more tales than the one my sister bought.

I placed the "Vision" before Mrs Campbells statement, as being first in historical order, & a curious prophecy of the other event; & I placed her Statement separately; but if the Editor considered it would be advisable, & less confusing to place Mrs Campbell’s statement before the Vision, I can have no possible objection to altering the arrangement so far, or to preface the Vision" with the further words, "The following Vision of Charles 11th King of Sweden, contains so curious a Prophecy of the Assassination of Gustavus 3rd, as it was related to Her Royal Highness the Princess Charlotte, and preserved by Mrs Campbell, that we give it at length." Then would follow.

"Vision of Charles 11th of Sweden" &c of course if the Editor believed my assertion, or knew the fact from his own knowledge of the work, so as to be able to support my assertion with his great authority, I would gladly state that it was taken from "Un Diamant à dix facettes;" – but otherwise "from the French" would suffice for general readers, many of whom do not read French. I did not intend the "Vision" to be taken as told by Mrs Campbell, only as an historical Prophecy of the event she related, – otherwise I might have omitted "from the French" altogether. Nevertheless some authority should be given, that it might not be supposed to be my lively imagination that invented it.

My cousin the Dowr Lady Suffield,<7> is much pleased at the prospect of my Memoir appearing in a Magazine, as she has read it in MS, & having known Mrs Campbell, she liked it very much. Lady Burdett Coutts<8> will also be much pleased, as she has taken the kindest interest in my MSS on "Trees"<9> & other subjects; & as soon as I know Mr Macmillan’s terms, & whether he retains it, & when it will appear, I shall write & inform her of its publication at a certain date.

Your affre cousin
Louisa Charlotte Frampton

Lulworth Villa
St Mary Church
Torquay – July 14th 1875

[envelope:]
Henry Fox Talbot Esqre
Lacock Abbey
Chippenham
Wilts


Notes:

1. From 1868-1883, George Grove was the editor of MacMillan's Magazine, a monthly published in London and Cambridge. Although she never came to terms with MacMillan's on this article, Frampton eventually published ‘Princess Charlotte and Mrs Campbell’ in The Gentleman’s Magazine, n.s. v. 27, September 1876, pp. 275-289. Alicia Campbell, née Kelly, ‘Tam’ (1768–1829), a close family friend of the Framptons, first joined Princess Charlotte’s household in 1805.

2. Sir Robert Christison (1797–1882), M.D., Scottish physician, chemist and botanist.

3. Col. John Peter Addenbrooke (1753-1821), Equerry to Princess Charlotte (1796-1817).

4. Frédéric Soulié (1800-1847),French novellist and dramatist, and one of the contributors to Un Diamant a Dix Facettes [a tensided diamond] (Brussels: Société Belge de Librairie, 1839}. Alexandre Dumas (1802-1870) is not listed among the contributors and is not known to have written about the vision of Charles XI. She might be recalling having read Prosper Mérimée's (1803-1870) La Vision de Charles XI, included in his Mosaïque (Paris: H. Fournier jeune, 1833) and in numerous subsequent anthologies.

5. Harriot Georgiana Mundy, née Frampton (1806-1886); WHFT's cousin & sister-in-law; married William Mundy, 1830.

6. Edward Churton had a British and Foreign Library and Lionel Booth had a circulating library, both in London. In October 1855, they announced the merger of their businesses, so that "families and book societies can be supplied on terms more liberal than at any other Library."

7. Emily, née Shirley (d. 1881), wife of Edward Harbord, 3rd Baron Suffield and a cousin of Louisa.

8. Lady Angela Burdett-Coutts (1814-1906).

9. See Doc. No: 02864.