My dear Henry
I have not been so long at Penrice <1> without thinking of you. every thing reminds me of those days when I saw you frisking on the Sands or giving your Commands for “a yard of Sugar Almonds”. I find little bits of your writing & was last night shewing Chrisr <2> your list of Harrow School <3> which you wrote out from Memory & told me “to take care of it” he recollected many of the names and knew the history of several, one he regretted very much who died lately a Dr Harrington of Brayer Rose – but if people live so much seperated [sic] from their friends as you and Chrisr do, they might (as the Dorset phrase has it) as well be all dead & you would never be the wiser – yet such is the constitution of some minds that I forget the painful passages & trials of those days but spend hours in dwelling on what went on prosperously & blessing God for his goodness in alloting so much of my life in the company of good Chiln & clever innocents. harmony of disposition & a desire of attainment, pursuits that laid the foundation of future acquirements, which I regret to say I have tried hitherto to plant with small success – perhaps I expect too much from [illegible deletion] and old age has not the energy to incite as it did in former times
You must expect nothing but thoughts of an antique cast from your Old Aunt tho’ indeed these dreams are sadly checkquered by present events. My poor Susan Macdonald One in mind & family from her Childhood & my youth! her loss is at my age irreparable. indeed to use an expression of my Aunt Susan O’Brien, <4> “I feel like an Old Pollard in a Copse” Then again poor Susan Franklen <5> continues to be a great sufferer at Clifton <6> & but small hope of amendment but her mind is clear & a patent desire to bear what is inflicted, seems to clear her views of what her intellectual vision sees thro’ the half open door of futurity – Emma <7> has been nursing Mr Llewelyn <8> all thro’ the Winter but he is better now I lay it on Photography, for he is so devotedly fond of it, that he inhales too much chemical poisonous gas – We are going there tomorrow to cheer her – Chrisr goes to Margam <9> & so I take my leave of you & Penrice but I must hope to hear in return for all my dreams, that you will write me a history of your family or perhaps kind Mrs Talbot <10> would employ her leisure in renewing our intercourse for such Mountains intervene, that my information comes in a very circuitous manner.–
I am your affte Aunt
Mary L. Cole
[envelope:]
Henry Talbot Esq.
Lacock Abbey
Chippenham
Athenaeum Club
London
Notes:
1. Penrice Castle and Penrice House, Gower, Glamorgan, 10 mi SW of Swansea: home of Christopher Rice Mansel Talbot.
2. Christopher Rice Mansel Talbot (1803–1890), immensely wealthy landowner, mathematician & politician; WHFT’s Welsh cousin.
3. Harrow School: WHFT attended from 1811–1815 and his son Charles from 1855-1859.
4. Susannah Sarah Louisa O’Brien, née Strangways (1743–1827), WHFT’s great aunt.
5. Susie Franklen (d. 1860), daughter of Isabella Franklen.
6. Clifton, Bristol, on the Avon Gorge.
7. Emma Thomasina Llewelyn, née Talbot (1806–1881), photographer; WHFT’s Welsh cousin.
8. John Dillwyn Llewelyn (1810–1882), Welsh photographer, JP & High Sheriff.
9. Margam Park, Glamorgan: home of Christopher Rice Mansel Talbot.
10. Constance Talbot, née Mundy (1811–1880), WHFT’s wife.