[this is written on the same sheet as a note from Lady Elisabeth - see Doc. No: 00300]
Tuesday.
My dear Henry
I have just seen Paley <1> who seems determined on fixing at Bath & has desired me to make you acquainted with his decision - Gale <2> is painting drawing out a rough sketch of the House as I remember last time Mr Porter <3> expressed a wish to have some idea of its size & arrangement, which however I shall not send you till I hear from you that he is inclined to come here - Mr Paley looks to an absence of some continuance, probably for his Life - proposes to leave the House unfurnished to his curate, & to give a Salary of 80£ Pr annum, & the surplice Fees & Easter Dues <4> amounting on the average to 20£ a year more
Paley mentioned Michaelmas as the period he should prefer for giving over the Parish to his new Curate but would of course arrange as most convenient
I will settle with Cattle <5> & despatch him - Horatia <6> had her first Trial yesterday of [Grappy?] <7> - & I really think he is likely to answer her purpose -. We are going out again today, to see Mr Moore <8> - I have been sitting out on the East Terrace in the shadow reading the News paper - with Pompey & Morfine <9> basking in the sun -
Yr aff
C. F.
Notes:
1. Rev James Paley (1790-1863), Vicar at Lacock.
2. John Gale, carpenter at Lacock.
3. Charles Porter (1797-1877), fellow Cambridge student with WHFT and clergyman.
4. The money collected in church on Easter Day is traditionally given to the clergyman to augment his income.
5. Charles Cattle. [See Doc. No: 02327].
6. Henrietta Horatia Maria Gaisford, née Feilding (1810-1851), WHFT's half-sister.
7. Possibly a horse?
8. Thomas Moore (1780-1852), Irish poet.
9. More usually spelled Morphine, the family's dog, found by them on 20 December 1823 as a stray in the Piazza di Fontana Amorosa in Genoa.