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Document number: 4063
Date: 28 Mar 1840
Postmark: 30 Mar 1840
Recipient: TALBOT William Henry Fox
Author: TRAHERNE Charlotte Louisa, née Talbot
Collection: British Library, London, Manuscripts - Fox Talbot Collection
Collection number historic: LA40-40
Last updated: 6th September 2010

Coedriglan <1>
March 28th

My dear Henry

Your photogenics are so beautiful that I cannot defer telling you how much we have been delighted with them – Mr. Dillwyn <2> who happened to be with us when they came was quite surprized at the progress you have made<3> and particularly pleased with the busts <4> – Margam <5> is very pretty indeed but your views of Lacock are so much brighter that I wish you would come down again now we have such new sunny weather and make some more from it – I suppose you can repeat anything you have taken in the Camera as often as you please. I am afraid these are not fixed? Can you tell me if so how to fix them?

Kit <6> is to be in town for a few days & Lady Charlotte <7> is come to stay with us during his Absence she is looking very well. Mama <8> is now at Penrice <9> with Susan & Fanny <10> showing them the house and Mary <11> is still Nursing Isabelle <12> at Swansea – She is going on well & has a new boy born a little more than a week ago – We are to go to Lanelay <13> whenever Mama comes home but I do not expect she will be in a hurry to leave Penrice at this time of year which she always used to enjoy there the frost has ruined over garden but I dare say has not been severe there as it was not much felt at Swansea according to Mary’s account –

Your affectionate cousin
Charlotte Traherne

Give my love to Mrs Talbot <14> I hope the children <15> are well.

H Fox Talbot Esqer
Lacock Abbey
Chippenham
Wilts

p paid

Notes:

1. Coedriglan, near Cardiff, Wales: home of the Rev John Montgomerie Traherne, husband of WHFT’s cousin Charlotte.

2. Lewis Weston Dillwyn (1778–1855), Welsh botanist & MP.

3. WHFT had been frustrated in making new photogenic drawings by the terribly poor weather throughout 1839. However, the Spring of 1840 came on early and bright, providing him with ample sunshine and allowing him to rapidly improve on his results, both technically and aesthetically.

4. See for example ‘The Oriel Window at Lacock Abbey, with the bust of Patroclus’, Larry J Schaaf, Out of the Shadows; Herschel, Talbot & the Invention of Photography (London: Yale University Press, 1992), p. 90, Schaaf 2319.

5. Margam Park, Glamorgan: home of Christopher Rice Mansel Talbot.

6. Christopher Rice Mansel Talbot (1803–1890), immensely wealthy landowner, mathematician & politician; WHFT’s Welsh cousin.

7. Lady Charlotte Talbot, née Butler (1809–1846), wife of CRM Talbot.

8. Lady Mary Lucy Cole, née Strangways, first m. Talbot (1776–1855), WHFT’s aunt.

9. Penrice Castle and Penrice House, Gower, Glamorgan, 10 mi SW of Swansea: home of Christopher Rice Mansel Talbot.

10. Susan and Fanny Fox-Strangways, daughters of the Hon Charles Redlynch Fox-Strangways (d. 1836).

11. Mary Thereza Talbot (1795–1861), WHFT’s cousin.

12. Isabella Catherine Franklen, née Talbot (1804–1874).

13. Llanely, or Lanely, Glamorganshire: home of Lady Mary Cole and Mary Thereza Talbot.

14. Constance Talbot, née Mundy (1811–1880), WHFT’s wife.

15. Ela Theresa Talbot (25 Apr 1835 - 25 Apr 1893), WHFT's 1st daughter. Rosamond Constance Talbot (16 Mar 1837 - 7 May 1906), 'Rose'; 'Monie'; artist & WHFT's 2nd daughter; died & buried at San Remo, Italy, with a memorial at Lacock. Matilda Caroline Gilchrist-Clark, née Talbot (25 Feb 1839-1927), 'Tilly', WHFT's 3rd daughter.