Steam Yacht
off Erith
Sept^r 4^th 1861

My dearest Henry

All is over – & his long sufferings, greater than anyone can imagine, are now past, & he is at rest. ^<1>

He retained all his faculties till the very last instant, & employed his parting moments in blessing each & all of us, & in praying for himself & for us. He was quite resigned & prayed that the end might come quickly – for he suffered very much the last few hours; but towards the last the pain seemed to pass away – he was quite calm, & his last look was for me –

He felt happy too in having, as he said, such affectionate children round him – They have all been most devoted – & Charlie ^<2> fanned him the night before for 3 hours without stopping. – They feel this misfortune very deeply, & for me it seems such a blank I cannot describe it. The doctor who has been with him since we left London, has been most watchful & self-sacrificing, having been up many nights; & the nurse who has been with us the last ten years, has been a perfect Angel!

He is to be taken to Plymouth in this Yacht, & Charlie goes, with the doctor & nurse. We are going to London, to Schill’s Hotel, ^<3> 1 Albemarle S^t for two or three days, & then to Mount Edgcumbe. ^<4> I am sure he had a presentiment, for he told his Nurse that if he embarked in the Yacht, he should never leave it again.

All traces of suffering are now vanished from his dear face, which is the most beautiful thing to look upon now, that you can imagine – & is, I trust, the emblem of the peace his spirit is now enjoying.

Dear Henry you are the only one I have written to myself, as my children have undertaken all the other letters – But I knew you would like to hear from me, & that you & all your’s [sic] would sympathise in my great sorrow.

Will you write to Jane Nicholl & Harriot Mundy ^<5> for me?

Let Amandier ^<6> see this letter –

Ever Y^r aff^te Sister
Caroline

We could not get rooms at Schill’s, & are going to an Hotel in Dover S^t next Ashburnham House 31 I think – I believe Pearse’s Hotel ^<7> – Write to me there. Will you also write to Uncle William ^<8> & L^dLansdowne [illegible deletion] Kit Talbot ^<9> – I believe he is at Cowes –

6 o’clock was the hour yesterday evening.

---

Notes:

1. The death of Ernest Augustus Edgcumbe, Lord Valletort, 3^rd Earl of Mt Edgcumbe (1797– 3 September 1861), WHFT’s brother-in-law.

2. Charles Earnest Edgcumbe (1838–1915), JP, WHFT’s nephew.

3. Louis Schill, private hotelier and eau de cologne importer (listed as being at 4 Albemarle Street in the 1856 London Post Office Directory).

4. Mt Edgecumbe, near Plymouth: seat of the Earl of Mt Edgcumbe

5. Jane Harriot Nicholl, née Talbot (1796–1874); Harriot Georgiana Mundy, née Frampton (1806-1886), WHFT’s cousin & sister-in-law.

6. Amélina Petit De Billier, ‘Mamie’, ‘Amandier’ (1798–1876), governess and later close friend of the Talbot family [See Amélina's journal].

7. Misspelling of Piercy’s. Listed as Mrs Catherine Piercy, private hotelier, 31 Dover Street.

8. William Thomas Horner Fox Strangways, 4^th Earl of Ilchester (1795–1865), botanist, art collector & diplomat.

9. Christopher Rice Mansel Talbot (1803–1890), immensely wealthy landowner, mathematician & politician; WHFT’s Welsh cousin.