My dear Henry
I was very much obliged to you for your little letter & delighted with the good intelligence it contained – I hope your Mother <1> will find everything going on in the same prosperous manner. I shall like very much to hear of Horatia’s <2> improved health & hope you will give me a line sometimes but I must acknowledge the more lines you put in the letter the better I shall like it, as I think, in general, the same subjects interest us – Jane <3> & 4 of her Children are here & Emma <4> & her baby so the house is full & the socialette <5> in employment & the sands & salt water in requisition – in a fortnight We are going to the Eisteddfod at Cardiff & then talk of going to see the Galatea <6> race with the Water Witch at Cowes but I think I shall not be able to go, as Isabella <7> is to be confined in another Month & has been very ill, so that I shall not like to be very far away from her. All the party here are well & join in love to you & a wish that you would bring Mrs Talbot <8> into South Wales sometime or another to botanise tho’ at present I cannot say when I shall be quietly at Penrice <9> expecting to be sent for to Isabella as I am at present
your aff Aunt
Mary L. Cole
Henry Talbot Esqr
Lacock Abbey
Chippenham
31 Sackville Street <10>
Piccadilly
London
Notes:
1. Lady Elisabeth Theresa Feilding, née Fox Strangways, first m Talbot (1773–1846), WHFT’s mother.
2. Henrietta Horatia Maria Gaisford, née Feilding (1810–1851), WHFT’s half-sister.
3. Jane Harriot Nicholl, née Talbot (1796–1874).
4. Emma Thomasina Llewelyn, née Talbot (1806–1881), photographer; WHFT’s Welsh cousin.
5. A carriage, possibly corresponding to a ‘sociable’, that is, an open carriage with seats facing one another.
6. Christopher Rice Mansel Talbot ’s yacht.
7. Isabella Catherine Franklen, née Talbot (1804–1874).
8. Constance Talbot, née Mundy (1811–1880), WHFT’s wife.
9. Penrice Castle and Penrice House, Gower, Glamorgan, 10 mi SW of Swansea: home of Christopher Rice Mansel Talbot.
10. Readdressed in another hand.