Grasmere
Saturday Oct 29.
My dear Henry
I am very busy today - but I write a hurried line in case of your being in a state of doubt & perplexity about our coming home, that you must not expect us till Thursday. The explanation of this change is that I have this morning received the most kind & pressing solicitations from Speddoch to spend Tuesday with them - There was some trifling inconvenience about their present guests leaving on Monday - and they had decided for Tuesday at all events: therefore my going there really only occasions one day's delay - It is too long to explain how all this came about but they naturally wished Ela to become acquainted with Speddoch - as she would have been the only one in darkness on the subject - and they thought it would be pleasant for both her & for me to enjoy a social meeting there altogether - and so infinitely more convenient for stating on the journey home - from thence, & so to avoid the bother & agitation of meeting at the Junction & having perhaps to wait in the cold - But I forget - I should not speak of cold today, when the thermometer stands at 51 - now at three o'clock. What extraordinary changes! I had such pressing letters from each one at Speddoch - all by this morning's post - and no possibility of refusing had I wished it - We start at 8 o'clock on Monday morning by the Coach - at Kendal I sent all the servants home - to sleep that night at Birmingham - Ella & I will wait about three hours at Kendal, where breakfast & a fire will make us comfortable at the Kings arms Hotel where Mlle A & Rosd slept the other night - The train to Carlisle a little before 1. will be due at Dumfries at 4:50 - where the Speddoch carriage will be in waiting for us - We are to stop all Tuesday - and start for home on Wednesday - Sleep at Crewe - & Lacock on Thursday - The Servants will be at Chippenham at 1:53 on Tuesday if the Time tables of this Month may be trusted for 1st of Nov. - and if the trains fit at Didcot - Will you be so good as to order the Cobourg <1> and the cart to meet them at that hour & wait the following train at 4:50 if they shd miss the 1:53.
Are you not glad to know that you will have us all at home on Thursday? - Ela sends her love.
your affectionate
Constance.
The weather today is fine - but wild - My accounts from Speddoch are excellent. -
[envelope:]
H. F. Talbot Esqre
Lacock Abbey
Chippenham
Wiltshire
Notes:
1.The cobourg was a two-wheeled covered carriage, used especially in the country.