Cowes,
Thursday 26th August. 1830
My Dear Mother,
Lady Listowel <1> tells me she has received a letter from Mrs Villiers <2> announcing Theresa’s <3> marriage to Mr Lister – He has a very small fortune, so they won’t be able to live at his place, which is to be let.
I went in the mail from Devizes to Salisbury, it took me a road I had never travelled, by way of Lavington <4> – This is much prettier (the first part of it) than the usual road, indeed I thought between Devizes & Lavington a very nice rural country, & mean to explore it when I have leisure. The mail was near 4 hours getting to Salisbury, distance only 24 miles, but then it had but 2 horses & the road is very hilly – I chaised it from Sarum <5> to Southton, <6> & steamed it from thence to Cowes; – met Methuen on board the packet returning to Ryde from Lord Radnor’s.
We had a very rough passage, blowing more than half a gale of wind, & shipping seas, which never happened to me before in this usually so tranquil channel.
Besides my aunt Mary’s <7> party, Kit <8> is here in the Galatea with his usual satellite Calvert Jones; <9> Lord Ilchester with John Stavey & Ste. <10> The Listowels, Grantham’s [sic] Clonmell’s [sic] <11> &c &c. I don’t think you would like the place much, & am not sorry you are at home instead; for in the first place you would not have much enjoyment of my Aunt’s society because she lives on the other side of the water, & there is no Bridge but a boat, & you would not like returning home at night perhaps, pitch dark & raining –Tomorrow there is a Bazar [sic] & réunion at Southampton & a ball at Cowes in the evening – I believe Cowes may be looked upon as a residence neither very lively nor yet absolutely dull – My aunt is not very well but takes a good deal of exercise. – She regrets Penrice <12> much, particularly that she leaves it so long before Kit will want it; – She says if he were going to live there now, she would not mind it, but he talks of not living there for nearly a year.
We pressed them very much to live on there some time longer, but Sir C. <13> thought it better not. – They are going back to Penrice from Cowes, in order to pack up quantities of things that are still lying about, & arrange other business – They are quite undetermined about a residence, talk of Dunraven Castle, or Penthline Castle <14> (where Bella <15> lives now). My aunt seems well enough inclined toward Spy Park if it is to be let, which I suppose it would be were a sufficient consideration offered to its Proprietor. – At any rate it is only for 4 years they want a house, till Margam <16> is built. Afterwards they return to Penrice. – Miss Baring, H. Baring’s <17> daughter is to be married to a Mr Bridgman Simpson <18> – I don’t know if John will return to Lacock with me, I shall be at home I think Monday or Tuesday. Kit goes in a day or two to the Assizes – then comes back to Cowes.
Yours
H. T. –
Lady Elisth Feilding
Lacock Abbey
Chippenham
Wilts
Notes:
1. Anne Hare, née Latham (d. 1859), Lady Listowel.
2. Probably related to George Child Villiers, 5th Earl of Jersey (1773–1859).
3. Maria Theresa Lister, née Villiers (1803–1865) married Thomas Henry Lister on 6th November 1830.
4. Over the middle of Salisbury Plain.
5. Old name for Salisbury, Wiltshire.
6. Southampton.
7. Lady Mary Lucy Cole, née Strangways, first m. Talbot (1776–1855), WHFT’s aunt.
8. Christopher Rice Mansel Talbot (1803–1890), immensely wealthy landowner, mathematician & politician; WHFT’s Welsh cousin, and his yacht ‘Galatea’.
9. Rev Calvert Richard Jones (1802–1877), Welsh painter & photographer.
10. Henry Stephen Fox Strangways, 3rd Earl of Ilchester (1787–1858), his younger brother John George Charles Fox Strangways (1803–1859), MP, and his sons Henry Thomas Leopold, Lord Stavordale (1816–1837) and Stephen Fox Strangways(1817–1848).
11. The families of Thomas Philip Robinson, 3rd Baron Grantham (1781–1859), and the 2nd Earl of Clonmell.
12. Penrice Castle and Penrice House, Gower, Glamorgan, 10 mi SW of Swansea: home of Christopher Rice Mansel Talbot.
13. Sir Christopher Cole (1770–1836), Captain, MP & naval officer.
14. Probably a phonetic spelling of ‘Penllyn’ Castle.
15. Isabella Catherine Franklen, née Talbot (1804–1874).
16. Margam Park, Glamorgan: home of Christopher Rice Mansel Talbot.
17. Frances Emily Baring, daughter of Henry Baring, brother to Lord Ashburton.
18. Henry Bridgeman-Simpson.