Bremhill –
August 12^th 1834

Dear Talbot

If you will call, at 25 – Parliament Street, as you go down to the house, you may see – M^r J. G. Nicholls, ^<1> the intelligent young Man who called with me at Lacock, & he will take charge of M^rs Talbot’s ^<2> drawing, ^<3> to whom I beg my best remembrances, returning many thanks.

Pray, see M^r Nicholls, himself – & tell him from me, or rather shew this letter – then the Passage – about Edward – “Fortis Agonista ad Exitium” ^<4> from the Norman writer – is most important – & so God have you, in good keeping & send you both, safe over the waters, back to the House of Lacock & the cloisters of Ela ^<5> –

& believe me &ca truly –
W. L. Bowles.

M^rs Bowles^<6> is going to Lady Lansdowne’s ^<7> this Evening to have a syllabub with the children! I am was

H. F. Talbot Esq^r M. P.
31 Sackville Street
London

In this packet ^<8> is a letter of W. L. Bowles, August 12 1834. Mentions John Gough Nichols.

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Notes:

1. Probably a misspelling for John Gough Nichols (1806–1873), London printer & author.

2. Constance Talbot, née Mundy (1811–1880), WHFT’s wife.

3. It is not clear whether it is a drawing by Constance Talbot or one owned by her. It is possibly the view of Lacock Abbey “drawn in 1834” that Nichols used as a frontis to Bowles’ Annals and Antiquities of Lacock Abbey, in the County of Wilts… (London: L.J. B. Nichols & Son, 1835).

4. A strong combatant till death.

5. Ela (d. 1261), Countess of Salisbury, who founded the abbey of Lacock in 1232.

6. Magdalen Bowles, née Wake (1772-1844).

7. Louisa Emma Petty Fitzmaurice, née Fox Strangways, Marchioness of Lansdowne (1785-1851), wife of Henry Petty Fitzmaurice, 3^rd Marquess of Lansdowne; Lady of the Bedchamber to Queen Victoria, 1837-1838; WHFT's aunt.

8. The remainder of the text is written in another hand on a separate slip.