Lacock
Novr 25th 1839
My Dear Constance
I am very glad <1> you accomplished your journey so well: I am surprised that you travelled at first so slowly as not to leave Newbury before ½ past 3, and then that you went so fast to Twyford as to be in time for the 6 o’clock train. The weather was beautiful here all day. The ingenious little artifice of putting the letter into the post at Kensington succeeded perfectly. My mother, Horatia, & Mlle <2>are just gone to Bowood, <3> I hear there is nobody there but Dr & Mrs Fowler. <4>
I think it was very lucky that I thought of ordering the horses to meet you halfway to Reading otherwise you would have been too late for the train – We arrived at Mr Joy’s very punctually to the time he described as his dinner hour but he was not at all punctual & we had to wait a long time for dinner. The company consisted of Col & Mrs Wildman, <5> Miss Elton Miss Ella Houlton, Dr Greenup –We returned home at ½ past 11, having the Benefit of the moonlight. Pray buy for me some weights for weighing letters: they are sold by Hooper in Pall Mall. And buy me Tytler’s England under the Reign of Edward 6th and Mary just Published in 2 vols <6>– I think it will amuse you to read it while you are in Town – I advise you to pay a visit to the Adelaide Gallery <7> in Lowther’s Arcade, and see M. Daguerre’s pictures <8> there, which are executed by himself. There is no extra charge – Let Nicole <9> know of them in case he should like to spend his shilling in viewing them, & tell him they are not the same as what he was when in Town with me last month. The weather is grown warm today & very dark
Your Affte
Henry
Mrs Talbot
44 Queen Ann St
London
Novr 25. 1839
Notes:
1. This is a reply to Doc. No: 03972.
2. Lady Elisabeth Theresa Feilding, née Fox Strangways, first m Talbot (1773–1846), WHFT’s mother, Henrietta Horatia Maria Gaisford, née Feilding (1810–1851), WHFT’s half-sister and Amélina Petit De Billier, ‘Mamie’, ‘Amandier’ (1798–1876), governess and later close friend of the Talbot family [See Amélina's journal].
3. Bowood House, nr Calne, Wiltshire, 5 mi NE of Lacock: seat of the Marquess of Lansdowne.
4. Richard Fowler (1765–1863), physician.
5. Thomas Wildman (1787–1859), of Newstead Abbey and Louisa Wildman, née Preisig. He was aide-de-campe to Lord Anglesey at the Battle of Waterloo.
6. Patrick Fraser Tytler, England under the Reigns of Edward VI. and Mary, with the Contemporary History of Europe, illustrated in a Series of Original Letters never before Printed, &c (London: 1839).
7. In September and October of 1839, M. de Ste. Croix exhibited specimens of the daguerreotype at Adelaide Gallery.
8. Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre (1787–1851), French artist, showman & inventor.
9. Nicolaas Henneman (1813–1898), Dutch, active in England; WHFT’s valet, then assistant; photographer.