Penrice <1>
Novr 26
My dear Henry
I enclose you some roots of the vernal Squill from the Cliffs at Oxwich point<2> & I have no doubt they will flourish very well at Laycock - If you will take my opinion (you know I like to give it whether you do or not) you will have a department in the kitchen garden dug & prepared to receive all the plants you may acquire this winter - next Summer you will be acquainted with their comparative heights & colours & dispose them better in your flower garden whenever that is made - I hope however you will not begin such an expence as the filling up that pond for an Italian garden till you have paid for the alterations you are now making, which I heard the architect told somebody would be very expensive & as you are but a beginner you know I will just hint, what I am sure of, that you will never be able to fit up that drawing room under a thousand pounds, after it is built - I am led to say this in hopes that you will make your improvements in as leisurely a way as prudence points out or you will be obliged to abandon them as they were before - Mary Anne <3> has been making some enquiries after the painted glass that Mrs Davenport<4> left you & she finds it is still in the hands of a Mr Trimnel <5> at Bath - but he refuses to give it up on account of a debt of 68 pounds contracted before you was [sic] born for fitting up Laycock - I do not believe he is justified by Law in keeping the glass provided his warehouse expen[ses]<6> are paid, but it is natural in equity to try & pay himself - shall I send you a bundle of plants I have for you, now, there are some of the anemones & narcissusses you imported that I could spare you if you like. tho' they bloom in spring, you could take a trip from London to see them. all our party are gone to Bacon Hole <7> with their Luncheon the day being so very summerish - I think gardening suits my old bones much better - will you have seeds?
my kind love to all & believe me your aff Aunt
M: L: Cole
Swansea Novbr twenty seven 1827. Chrisr Cole
Henry Fox Talbot Esqre
Laycock Abbey
Chippenham.
Wilts
Notes:
1. Penrice Castle and Penrice House, Gower, Glamorgan, 10 mi SW of Swansea: home of Christopher Rice Mansel Talbot.
2. A maritime plant; Oxwich Point is on the Gower Peninsula of South Wales and was an estate of the Talbots of Wales.
3. Mary Anne Thackeray, née Shakespear (1793-1850).
4. Barbara Davenport (1754-1812), WHFT's aunt. This was a painted glass window which she left to be placed in Lacock Church. See Doc. No: 01587.
5. Charles Trimnell of Bath, a supplier of furniture and other goods to Talbot's father at Lacock. His wife was Elizabeth Trimnell and he stored Barbara Davenport's glass.
6. Text torn away under seal.
7. A cave on the south coast of the Gower Peninsula, just west of Pwlldu Head, noted for its prehistoric animal and human remains.