Laycock Abbey
17th December
My Dear Henry
I send you the enclosed to Kit, <1> because I am not sure whether the postage to Malta (being ours) should be paid or not, beforehand. He desires you should go viâ Marseilles which may make a difference & I thought they would not be able to clear up these difficulties at the Chippenham P. office but I suppose at [sic] any of those in London will tell you all about it. It is in answer to a very dismal letter of his, which if your aunt Mary <2> was to see it would break her heart. Caroline <3> goes tomorrow, She was much pleased to receive your Letter this morning. The Charades succeeded very well. all the Day had been employed by Flora & Annie &c &c to make the dresses. Ela <4> made a very pretty Mary Q. of Scots, & gave her hand with great dignity to be kissed. One tableau was charming, it represented les beaux Arts, <5> Music, Painting & Sculpture Ela, Rosamund & Matilda. <6> Valletort <7> made a capital old decrepid [sic] Man with a long white beard, and Charlie <8> danced an excellent Hornpipe as an English Tar. Mr Bowerbank <9> is in Glocestershire [sic] so did not dine here yesterday – Mr Bridges <10> slept at the Red Lion & says it was very comfortable. He returned here this morning that [we] might shew him Talbotypes. <11> Shelburne & Lord Dunkellin <12> dined here yesterday & staid till long after Midnight, a sign they found it agreeable Mr Bridges has just departed, in a Cloke formed of Buffalo skin which he used to sleep on in Canada
Notes:
1. Christopher Rice Mansel Talbot (1803–1890), immensely wealthy landowner, mathematician & politician; WHFT’s Welsh cousin.
2. Sir Christopher Cole (1770–1836), Captain, MP & naval officer.
3. Caroline Augusta Edgcumbe, née Feilding, Lady Mt Edgcumbe (1808–1881); WHFT’s half-sister.
4. Ela Theresa Talbot (1835–1893), WHFT’s 1st daughter.
5. The Fine Arts.
6. Rosamond Constance ‘Monie’ Talbot (1837–1906), artist & WHFT’s 2nd daughter, and Matilda Caroline Gilchrist-Clark, ‘Tilly’, née Talbot (1839–1927), WHFT’s 3rd daughter.
7. William Henry Edgcumbe, ‘Val’, 4th Earl Mt Edgcumbe (1832–1917), JP & Ld Steward of the Royal Household; WHFT’s nephew ‘Bimbo’.
8. Charles Earnest Edgcumbe (1838–1915), JP, WHFT’s nephew.
9. Rev Lewis Bowerbank (1782-1853), curate of St Cyriac's, Lacock, 1846-1847; former Rector of St Catherines, Jamaica, 1823-1843; friend of Rev George Bridges.
10. Rev George Wilson Bridges (1788–1863), photographer and traveller.
11. Although WHFT modestly used the term calotype, his mother and other loyal supporters honoured him by calling these Talbotypes, in parallel with the term Daguerreotype.
12. Sir Henry Petty Fitzmaurice, Lord Shelburne, 4th Marquess of Lansdowne (1816–1866), MP and WHFT's cousin; and Ulick Canning De Burgh, Lord Dunkellin (1827–1867).