Thomas’s Hotel <1>
Sunday Septr 11th 1842
My dear Henry
I should be delighted to take the Children to Laycock Abbey as Constance <2> so kindly proposes, & see you both for a wee bit before beginning my Waiting, if I can make it possible, wh however I very much doubt – I must see what I can devise, & must only beg of Constance to let me come without farther notice, if I succeed in contriving my journey thither – I have written to Baroness Lehzen <3> at Windsor, where I never discovered she was till today, to request her to give me all the information in her power respecting the Queen’s <4> movements – & according to when I hear, so must I act – I shall most gratefully acept your offer of accompanying Val. <5> & me to Hatfield, that we may not be wholly unprotected livrés <6> to Mr Attwood <7> – but I scarcely know how, (supposing I do not manage my visit to Laycock,) without you making you come to Town, wh wd be a great pity, unless I merely call for you there, without scarcely stopping – this is supposing the Qn’s return takes place soon, so that we have not time to communicate – I have also another trouble in the non-arrival of certain boxes containing not only many things I want myself, but great part of poor Val’s trousseau – they left Teplitz the same day we did & were to have arrived [illegible deletion] Via Hamburgh in 8 – days, & they are not here yet – but those sort of promises & arrangements invariably fail – I hope I shall be able to compass seeing you, & flatter myself the Qn will not be quite exact this time – Best love to Constance, & pray remember me kindly to Miss Mundy <8> –
Flora & Annie <9> are at Teplitz with Ernest <10> –
Yrs very affly
Caroline
Notes:
1. See Doc. No: 04607.
2. Constance Talbot, née Mundy (1811–1880), WHFT’s wife.
3. Baroness Louise Lehzen (1784–1870), governess of Queen Victoria from 1824 until her dismissal in 1842.
4. Victoria (1819–1901), Queen of the United Kingdom (1837–1901), Empress of India (1876–1901).
5. William Henry Edgcumbe, ‘Val’, 4th Earl Mt Edgcumbe (1832–1917), JP & Ld Steward of the Royal Household; WHFT’s nephew ‘Bimbo’.
6. Deliveries.
7. Probably Thomas Attwood (1783–1856), radical MP, banker & manufacturer.
8. The sister of Constance Talbot, née Mundy (1811–1880), WHFT’s wife.
9. Caroline's husband's nieces through his sister, Lady Caroline Sophia Edgcumbe (d. 10 April 1824), who was the first wife of Reginald George Macdonald (d. 1873): the Honorable Flora Isabella Clementina (1822-1899) was Maid of Honor and later Woman of the Bedchamber to Queen Victoria. In 1848, Annie Sarah (sometimes Sarah Anne) married Alfredo Salvatori Ruggioro Andrea, Baron Porceilli di Sant Andrea, a Sicilian nobleman and revolutionary commander.
10. Ernest Augustus Edgcumbe, Lord Valletort, 3rd Earl of Mt Edgcumbe (1797–1861), WHFT’s brother-in-law.