My dear Henry –
all your good nature about the Glasses, & all my Trouble & preparations for the Transit was entirely useless – We never had a Ray of Sun shine the whole Day – Phelps <1> made 2 very good screws & in so far restored the Telescope to a useable condition, but in other respects it is sadly out of order, the Firsten or whatever you call the small attached Telescope, gives you a very good view of the end of his neighbor, but of nothing else celestial or Terrestial – Horatia <2> is mending fast – we are to be in Town Saturday Night –
[illegible deletion] you [illegible] estimate for doing the needful to the Windows
| is – | 1– | 10– | 0 |
| Gales <3> – | 18 | ||
| Phelps – | 10 | ||
| altogether | 2– | 18 | 0 |
Shall I order them to be done when the weather is favorable for paint & Putty?
I was at Sloperton <4> yesterday & found both of them unwell, & not likely to be better for going to him at Bowood <5> – Louisa & Henry <6> arriving while I was there to take them, in the Jaunting car <7> in as pitiless a shower as ever fell – they being poor innocents having persuaded themselves, that in such weather Lady L. <8> certainly would send the Barcoche at least.
Yr Aff
C. F.
Sunday May 6. 1832 <9>
Let Franklin <10> take the enclosed <11>Notes:
1. Philip Phelps, Surveyor of Taxes & Bailiff, Lacock.
2. Henrietta Horatia Maria Gaisford, née Feilding (1810–1851), WHFT’s half-sister.
3. John Gale, carpenter at Lacock.
4. Sloperton Cottage, Wiltshire, 1 mi E of Lacock: home of Thomas Moore, the Irish poet.
5. Bowood House, nr Calne, Wiltshire, 5 mi NE of Lacock: seat of the Marquess of Lansdowne.
6. Probably Louisa Howard, née Fitzmaurice (d. 1906), daughter of Lady Louisa Emma Fitzmaurice, and Henry Fitzmaurice, Lord Shelburne, 4th Marquess of Lansdowne (1816–1866), MP.
7. Two wheeled, open cart (invented in Ireland) capable of carrying several people.
8. Louisa Emma Petty Fitzmaurice, née Fox Strangways, Marchioness of Lansdowne (1785-1851), wife of Henry Petty Fitzmaurice, 3rd Marquess of Lansdowne; Lady of the Bedchamber to Queen Victoria, 1837-1838; WHFT's aunt.
9. Probably in WHFT’s hand.
10. Franklin, servant.
11. There is no enclosure.