Margam <1>
March 5th
My dear Henry
I was very glad to hear of the birth <2> of your little girl & hope Mrs Talbot <3> & her baby are both doing well. Mary <4> & I are now at Margam as the Doctors have desired Lady Charlotte <5> not to move any further yet & I do not think they well go to Town till after Easter – as usual there are a great many people employed – they are Levelling & sloping the ground behind the house & making the steps from the terrace down to the gardens but it will be long before they make much shew, the space is so great that the people look like ants making their nest tho’ not near so diligent – Mr Llewelyn at Penllegare <6> is deeply engaged in trying to follow your prescriptions & has made some faint drawings Emma <7> tells me which delights her but her baby has been so very ill that it has occupied her in a less agreeable manner & poor Lewis Dillwyn has been suffering with Tic douloureux for some weeks so much that his Chemistry is laid on the shelf for the present. To me that it was the laboratory that brought it on, so I mention it that you may not run too many risks– Kit <8> is just returned from the Assizes, where there is a trial that interests the populace extremely. It is a Baron Spolasco, a quack Doctor who is to be tried for giving some stuff to a woman who died, but it seems she had been given over long before, & he has make such friends of the common people think the Doctors persecute him for his cleverness, that the whole country are excited– Pray give my love to Mrs Talbot & believe me
your aff Aunt
M: L: Cole
Taibach March five 1839 CRM Talbot
W H F Talbot Esq
44 Queen Ann St.
London
Notes:
1. Margam Park, Glamorgan: home of Christopher Rice Mansel Talbot.
2. Birth of Matilda Caroline Gilchrist-Clark, ‘Tilly’, née Talbot (1839–1927), WHFT’s 3rd daughter.
3. Constance Talbot, née Mundy (1811–1880), WHFT’s wife.
4. Mary Thereza Talbot (1795–1861), WHFT’s cousin.
5. Lady Charlotte Talbot, née Butler, wife of CRM Talbot.
6. John Dillwyn Llewelyn (1810–1882), Welsh photographer, JP & High Sheriff; Penllergaer, Glamorgan, 5 mi E of Loughor: home of the Llewelyn family.
7. Emma Thomasina Llewelyn, née Talbot (1806–1881), photographer; WHFT’s Welsh cousin.
8. Christopher Rice Mansel Talbot (1803–1890), immensely wealthy landowner, mathematician & politician; WHFT’s Welsh cousin.