Mt Edgcumbe <1>
Thursday April 21st 1836
My dear Henry
Thanks for your long list of flowers – I shall turn it to account, & I have likewise just received a parcel of plants from Carclew <2> for my Pergola I am quite disappointed by your saying you cannot come here – I had quite made up my mind beforehand that you would, & was longing to shew you my garden, & for Constance <3> to see this lovely place – It is just budding into beauty, & consider that perhaps we may never again have such a good opportunity of receiving you here, independently of the uncertainties of life – I would not urge it if you were at Laycock Abbey, but from Southampton the distance is so trifling, particularly by steam – Perhaps you will think better of it when you have seen Constance, tho’ I should be very sorry she came, unless she felt up to it – I have not mentioned the subject to her, tho’ I have written, & received a nice long answer today – But I am sure it would do her a world of good, & you too, who always require change of air. – I shall say no more at present as I must go & superintend the planting of a young Bay tree – If you see Uncle William <4> ask him if he ever received a letter I enclosed to him for Ld Cathcart <5> –
Yr affte Sister –
Caroline
W. Henry Fox Talbot Esqr
31 Sackville Street
London
Notes:
1. Mt Edgecumbe, near Plymouth: seat of the Earl of Mt Edgcumbe.
2. Carclew, Cornwall, 3 mi N of Penryn: seat of Sir Charles Lemon.
3. Constance Talbot, née Mundy (1811–1880), WHFT’s wife.
4. William Thomas Horner Fox Strangways, 4th Earl of Ilchester (1795–1865), botanist, art collector & diplomat.
5. Charles Murray Cathcart, 2nd Earl (1783–1859).
6. William Henry Edgcumbe, ‘Val’, 4th Earl Mt Edgcumbe (1832–1917), JP & Ld Steward of the Royal Household; WHFT’s nephew ‘Bimbo’.
7. Ela Theresa Talbot (1835–1893), WHFT’s 1st daughter.
8. Ernest Augustus Edgcumbe, Lord Valletort, 3rd Earl of Mt Edgcumbe (1797–1861), WHFT’s brother-in-law.