[In Doc. No: 05111, Constance indicated that this was the letter that she directed to the Black Swan in York. WHFT apparently did not get to read it until he returned to Lacock, for the latest in the series of postmarks was 5 November 1844 in Chippenham.]
Lacock Abbey
Friday Oct 25th
My dear Henry
What is there so attractive in Darlington that you bid me write there a third time? I am quite ignorant of the interesting objects it contains – How very stale some of my scraps must be before they come to your hands! – I am charmed to hear that you had such fine weather for Loch Katrine – &c – and I am very glad that you did not turn back at Edinburgh as I fancied you would. I am at this moment expecting Lady Elisabeth <1> – for I heard yesterday she was recovered & intending to set out & stop at Exeter last night – I had energy enough to set out early this morning for an urgent shopping at Bath & I came home again before 3 – to insure being ready to welcome Lady Elisabeth – I thought she might perhaps have come by that train, though certainly not earlier. Yesterday was a thoroughly wretched pouring day – and if Lady E. acted prudently, she did not set out – mais nous verrons <2> – Today has been lovely since the drizzling mist of the morning cleared off. – I hear that the Damers have fixed to go to Bowood <3> on the 29th & to us afterwards – so they cannot be here before the end of next week – I wonder whether you will come back in the middle of their visit – I guess not if the weather should favor you enough to make your excursion pleasant
Six o’clock – They have been come about ½ an hour: and both Lady E. & Horatia <4> seem perfectly well – and not much tired with their journey – They report that Lord Mount Edgcumbe <5> is much better – They had very little rain yesterday though it poured here incessantly. Poor Noel <6> continues in a very middling way with his H. Cough – it is very sad that we gave it him – Not that the cough itself is bad; but it has deranged his health and thrown him I fear into the same state as last year – Lord Ilchester & Ld Stavordale<7> have been at Markeaton <8> in their way from Liverpool – to Melbury <9> – We can’t think what they have been doing in the North. –
Your affectionate
Constance. –
[envelope]
H. Fox Talbot Esqr.
Black Swan Hotel
Lacock Abbey
York
Chippenham
Notes:
1. Lady Elisabeth Theresa Feilding, née Fox Strangways, first m Talbot (1773–1846), WHFT’s mother.
2. but we shall see
3. Bowood House, nr Calne, Wiltshire, 5 mi NE of Lacock: seat of the Marquess of Lansdowne.
4. Henrietta Horatia Maria Gaisford, née Feilding (1810–1851), WHFT’s half-sister.
5. Ernest Augustus Edgcumbe, Lord Valletort, 3rd Earl of Mt Edgcumbe (1797–1861), WHFT’s brother-in-law.
6. Francis Noel Mundy (1833–1903), WHFT’s nephew.
7. Henry Stephen Fox Strangways, 3rd Earl of Ilchester (1787–1858); Stephen Fox Strangways, Lord Stavordale (1817-1848).
8. Markeaton Hall, Derbyshire, NW of Derby: home of the Mundy family
9. Melbury, Dorset: one of the Fox Strangways family homes; WHFT was born there
10. Charles Henry Talbot (1842–1916), antiquary & WHFT’s only son.