Mount Edgcumbe <1>
Monday April 12th 1852
My dear Henry
I intended to have written to you from Laycock Abbey – but found myself as usual so occupied, either with business, or as frequently happens there, with the dolce far viente, that I never had a spare moment. Many thanks for the seeds – Wilkins <2> gave me a nice little packet of various sorts for Ernestine. <3> The weather has been most brilliant ever since I left London, but most dangerous from the extreme Sharpness of the wind & heat of the sun – I hope you will take care of yourself, & not be deluded into putting on summer clothing in too great a hurry. The papers say that at Paris no one dares leave off any article of winter clothing in spite of the intense heat of the sun.
The dear old Abbey was looking in great beauty, with the brilliant sunshine & blue sky. I visited your flowers, & found a good shew. The Taxonia had one flower only, which was beginning to start itself up – but I saw it was beautiful. I don’t think the vegetation here is at all more advanced – These cold winds & the want of rain are of course equally felt here – The wind to-day, East & very high, is in fact much more felt than chez vous – & I am colder than I was at Laycock. Ld Mt E. <4> is very well indeed – Val <5> is very busy making a catalogue of the books, & routing out all sorts of old prints & drawings that have not seen the light for ages.
Is not Schwarzenberg’s <6> death a great political event?
Yrs affly
Caroline
Notes:
1. Mt Edgecumbe, near Plymouth: seat of the Earl of Mt Edgcumbe.
2. George Wilkins (b. 1814), gardener at Lacock.
3. Ernestine Emma Horatia Edgcumbe (1843-1925), WHFT’s niece.
4. Ernest Augustus Edgcumbe, Lord Valletort, 3rd Earl of Mt Edgcumbe (1797–1861), WHFT’s brother-in-law.
5. William Henry Edgcumbe, ‘Val’, 4th Earl Mt Edgcumbe (1832–1917), JP & Ld Steward of the Royal Household; WHFT’s nephew ‘Bimbo’.
6. Prince Felix Fürst zu Schwarzenberg (1800–1852), Prime Minister of Austria,