St Hilary
May 13th 74
My dear Henry
I have some journals of Miss Porter <1> out of which I could get something & there are a whole set of letters addressed to her by your mother <2> which are most entertaining – & some of the replies – The impetuous journey of Aunt Harriet <3> was what saved my mother’s <4> Life after the birth of my brother, <5> for she was so carefully tended by Aunt Harriet, who found her very ill & every body so wild with joy at the birth of a son & heir, that they forgot the necessary quiet &c
I dont know anything of the Revd Mr St George – All these Letters of my mothers which I append at the end of my book were addressed to My Miss St George & her mother who was Fanny Grady – You ought to have given me a few anecdotes for it is a great amusement to make out their authenticity or otherwise – & to compare & collate – the recollections of everybody are so different – You were at Stinsford <6> when I was there & we used to have our dinner in Mrs Carter’s room the house-keeper – I amused myself with peopling the house with folk of the olden time – but you had some other diversion no doubt – I want to see the journal of Miss Frampton which Harriet is going to print<7> but she does not respond to my request – I am sure there would be little things to correct in it –
Yours affly
Charlotte L Traherne
Notes:
1. Agnes Anne 'Po' Porter (1750-1814), the Scottish born governess to the 2nd Earl of Ilchester, primarily at Penrice. Unusually for a working woman of the period, some of her letters and diaries were preserved and have been published. See Joanna Martin, A Governess in the Age of Jane Austin. The Journals and Letters of Agnes Porter (London: The Hambledon Press, 1998).
2. Lady Elisabeth Theresa Feilding, née Fox Strangways, first m Talbot (1773–1846), WHFT’s mother.
3. Lady Harriet Frampton, née Fox Strangways (d. 1844) .
4. Lady Mary Lucy Cole, née Strangways, first m. Talbot (1776–1855), WHFT’s aunt.
5. Christopher Rice Mansel Talbot (1803–1890), immensely wealthy landowner, mathematician & politician; WHFT’s Welsh cousin.
6. Stinsford, Dorsetshire, 2 mi E of Dorcester.
7. Harriot Georgiana Frampton Mundy, The journal of Mary Frampton, from the year 1779, until the year 1846. Including various interesting and curious letters, anecdotes, … relating to events which occurred during that period (London: S. Low, Marston, Searle, & Rivington, 1885).