Bowood <1>
Oct 5th 1838
My dear Henry
Now you are in London you can contrive to find time, I dare say, to buy me the microscope that you spoke of & as you observed, it is best to have a good one &c &c when we are about it – Mrs Talbot <2> called here yesterday & seemed quite well. She seemed to think it was your publications which took you to London just now, but whether it was your microscopic delineations or your hermetic disquisitions she did not say in either case it would give me infinite pleasure to give you a helping hand I do not offer a helping head or you might well stare but I enclose you a present, which I can well spare & therefore you will I know accept from your aff Aunt
M: L: Cole
write me word about Lily <3> for her health makes me uneasy – Lord L. <4> returned in vigorous health the rest are but middling tho’ nobody complains – Calne <5> October fifth 1838 Shelburne <6>
Henry Talbot Esq.
31 Sackville Street
London
Notes:
1. Bowood House, nr Calne, Wiltshire, 5 mi NE of Lacock: seat of the Marquess of Lansdowne.
2. Constance Talbot, née Mundy (1811–1880), WHFT’s wife.
3. Lady Elisabeth Theresa Feilding, née Fox Strangways, first m Talbot (1773–1846), WHFT’s mother.
4. Henry Petty Fitzmaurice, 3rd Marquess of Lansdowne (1780–1863), MP, WHFT’s uncle.
5. Calne, Wiltshire, 5 mi NE of Lacock.
6. Henry Fitzmaurice, Lord Shelburne, 4th Marquess of Lansdowne (1816–1866), MP.