Lacock Abbey,
Chippenham.
Monday Feb. 8. 1869
My Dear Constance
I enclose a copy I made of Charlie Edgcumbe’s letter to his mother,<1> which I think will interest you. It has been to Tilly<2> and come back this afternoon I hope you got my letter of the 27th Janry recounting Miss Murray’s<3> visit and mentioning Mushet’s<4> letter, that some one had made an offer for our Edinburgh house. Tilly says that she has heard from Monie,<5> that she and Charles<6> went to a fancy ball. Pray tell Charles that his Law Books continue to come. He told me he should discontinue them because they cost 5 guineas a year. Perhaps he forgot to do so – Mr Awdry<7> is going to try and sell his pony next Friday, when there is a fair or great market day at Chippenham I believe Mr Awdry will give your vote for the Earlswood Asylum to a protégé of John Gale’s<8> – the 2 children to whom you were engaged having been elected last time. It seems now certain that the winter has been much finer in England than in Italy – There has been no skating, and nothing like real cold. No snow has been seen; the fields look rich and verdant – The spring flowers are a good month in advance of their usual time. The show of crocusses’s most splendid – Friday the 5th and Saturday the 6th were days of most glorious sunshine. Tilly writes word that it is almost equally fine at Dabton – Sir George Jenkinson<9> has spent ten thousand pounds (lawful expenses) on his election for our County, besides what he may have spent unlawfully – This includes the former election when he was unsuccessful – I wonder people can afford to throw away so much money. At Bradford (Yorkshire) Mr Ripley<10> spent £7,200 and was elected; but the judge has turned him out for ‘treating’ the Electors; so that all that money is lost and gone into the pockets of publicans. Parliament meets tomorrow week, when great excitement is expected to prevail.
The Irish Church question will stand in the way of all useful improvement.<11> Tell Charles that there is a Jew Senior Wrangler at Cambridge this year a thing until now entirely unheard of! He won’t have a fellowship poor fellow! altho’ he deserves it, as he would have to sign the 39 articles.<12> Miss Murray is now on a visit to her niece Mrs Colston at Roundway Park.
Love to all Your affte
Henry
Notes:
1. Charles Ernest Edgcumbe (1838-1915), JP, WHFT's nephew, who was in India, to Lady Caroline Augusta Edgcumbe, née Feilding (1808-1881); WHFT's half-sister [letter no longer enclosed].
2. Matilda Caroline Gilchrist-Clark, née Talbot (25 Feb 1839-1927), 'Tilly', WHFT's 3rd daughter.
3. Amelia Matilda Murray, 'Emily' (1795-1884), author.
4. John Mushet & Son, House Agents, Edinburgh (John b. 1811, son David b. 1842).
5. Rosamond Constance Talbot (16 Mar 1837 - 7 May 1906), died & buried at San Remo, Italy, with a memorial at Lacock; 'Monie', artist & WHFT's 2nd daughter.
6. Charles Henry Talbot, 'Charlie' or 'Tally' (2 Feb 1842 - 26 Dec 1916), antiquary & WHFT's only son.
7. West Awdry (1807-1892), solicitor, Chippenham.
8. John Gale was the carpenter at Lacock - he made some photographic accessories for WHFT and legend has it that he made the first 'mousetrap' cameras. The asylum was founded in 1847 in London by Ann Serena Plumbe and the Rev Dr Andrew Reed (1787–1862), a philanthropist. Designed to help those with learning disabilities, it was originally styled 'The Asylum for Idiots', then 'The Royal Earlswood Asylum for Idiots' and latterly 'The Royal Earlswood Hospital'. Its buildings were funded by public subscription, with Queen Victoria being a major early contributor. Charles Henry Talbot had petitioned for someone to be admitted - see Doc. No: 09486.
9. Sir George Samuel Jenkinson, Bart (1817-1892); voted against the disestablishment of the Irish church.
10. Sir Henry William Ripley (1813-1882), a manufacturer and dyer at President of the Bradford Chamber of Commerce. He sat briefly for Bradford in 1869 but was unseated by petition and was not re-elected until 1874.
11. The Irish Church Act (1869) broke the link between the church and the state and repealed the law requiring tithes to be paid. It also terminated the church's representation in the House of Lords. Such acrinomy was created between the House of Commons and the House of Lords by this that Queen Victoria intervened personally as mediator. When it took effect in 1871, the Church of Ireland was formed.
12. The Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion date to 1563 and were the historic defining statements of Anglican doctrine, and adherence to the articles was a legal requirement for holding civil office in England up to 1824. Until 1856, one had to be a member of the Church of England to take a degree at Cambridge, but many other restrictions persisted until late in the century (the University College in London - the 'godless university' - was founded in 1826 to admit those barred from the main universities). Although the first Jewish settlement in Cambridge was in 1073, Jews could not attend the University. In 1869, Numa Edward Hartog (1846–1871), the son of a professor of French in London, won Senior Wrangler (the highest mathematical honour). Widely recognised as a brilliant scholar, when Hartog declined to use the prescribed Christian form of words to take his degree, a ‘special grace’ was unanimously passed by the Cambridge Senate to respect his religion. His achievement was instrumental in the passage of the 1871 University Tests Act, which removed the restrictions on non-Anglicans in securing fellowships and taking degrees. Sadly, he never saw this, for Hartog contracted smallpox a second time and died in London 19 June 1871.