Mount Edgcumbe <1>
March 14th 1862
My dear Henry
I intend going up to London tomorrow for a few days with Ernestine. <2> My chief object is to see a house in Rutland Gate which is to be sold with all it’s [sic] furniture, which is quite new & very handsome. I told you before that I had given up the idea of a house for this year – & I shd not certainly wish to take one at present, unless the circumstances were very advantageous – which this appears to be.
The price, including furniture, but no stables, is 6000 Guineas for 80 years – Ground rent £34 – Most of the houses in that locality, & of that class, are 7000 or more – & my plan is to let it for this year – It is very near the Exhibition, but not quite so far west as Prince’s Gate.
Mr Boger <3> says the price named is the outside of what I can afford to give & he advises me to purchase. It is a “rising” quarter of the town – & I can no doubt get rid of it again if I am tired of it.
There are Stables in the neighbourhood wh can be hired separately.
I have some thoughts of sleeping at Chippenham in my way back, for the purpose of going to Laycock Abbey to see how the bouches de chaleur <4> in the house are constructed. I do not know the name of any of your people there now, except the Gardener Wilkinson <5> [sic] – Will you kindly send me a “ Lascia passare <6>”, to Schill’s Hotel, <7> 1 Albemarle St W. & perhaps some one at the Abbey will kindly explain them. What is the enclosed flower – a sort of creeper from the Winter Villa <8> –
Post going –
Yr affte Sister
Caroline
[envelope:]
Henry Fox Talbot Esqr
Milburn Tower
Edinburgh
[wax seal on flap:]
Mount Edgcumbe Devonport
Notes:
1. Mt Edgecumbe, near Plymouth: seat of the Earl of Mt Edgcumbe.
2. Ernestine Emma Horatia Edgcumbe (1843-1925), WHFT’s niece.
3. Deeble Boger, attorney.
4. Central heating vents.
5. George Wilkins (b. 1814), gardener at Lacock.
6. A pass.
7. Louis Schill, private hotelier and eau de cologne importer (listed as being at 4 Albemarle Street in the 1856 London Post Office Directory).
8. Winter Villa, near Plymouth: estate of the Earls of Mt Edgcumbe.