21 Chesham Place
Belgrave Square S. W.
May 15th 1867
My dear Henry
I have not heard from any of you for ages – & I long to know something about you, & what you have decided upon for your summer plans. Pray tell me where, & when you are going abroad? This return of positive winter is very discouraging for tourists & invalids.
I should like to be informed scientifically, why the sudden heat we enjoyed for one week, was so suddenly & cruelly followed by as sudden a return of cold. As Louisa Gallwey <1> says, of course it has to do with icebergs & the Gulph Stream! I send you 2 little flowers which grow in Lady Brownlow’s <2> garden at Torquay. They are remarkably pretty – especially the yellow one – & I wish you would tell me their names, as I want to get them for Torqua Cotehele, <3> & don’t know what to ask for. They look like perennials. – You never told me whether you had sent any photographs from good engravings, to the Paris Exhibition? <4> I wanted to know particularly.
How is Amandier? <5> How are you all?
Ernestine <6> wrote to Rosamond <7> abt 3 weeks ago. We left Cotehle on the 27th Ultmo staid 6 days at Mount Edgcumbe <8> (both places were in such opening beauty!) 5 days with Ly B. at Torquay, & came to our last year’s house here, on the 8th – London is dull, dark & cold now. Val wrote on the 9th that they were to leave Cannes the next day, & expected to arrive at Fontaine-bleu last Saturday. I have not heard since – perhaps this change of weather many have altered their plans,
yr affte Sister
Caroline
[envelope, flap monogrammed "CE":]
H. F. Talbot Esqre
13 Great Stuart Street
Edinburgh N.B.
Notes:
1. Louisa Gallwey (1811-1872), daughter of Lt Gen Sir William Payne Gallwey, 1st Bart (1759-1831) and Lady Harriet Payne Gallwey (1784-1845), née Quin.
2. Lady Brownlow, wife John Cust (1779–1853), 1st Earl Brownlow.
3. Cotehele, Cornwall: ancient house, seat of the Earl of Mt Edgcumbe, now a National Trust Property.
4. The 1867 Universal Exhibition in Paris.
5. Amélina Petit De Billier, ‘Mamie’, ‘Amandier’ (1798–1876), governess and later close friend of the Talbot family [See Amélina's journal].
6. Ernestine Emma Horatia Edgcumbe (1843-1925), WHFT’s niece.
7. Rosamond Constance ‘Monie’ Talbot (1837–1906), artist & WHFT’s 2nd daughter.
8. Mt Edgecumbe, near Plymouth: seat of the Earl of Mt Edgcumbe.