Mount Edgcumbe Devonport
Novr 14th 1867
My dear Henry
I wonder if you are at Laycock Abbey? I heard you were coming to England for 2 months – but know nothing farther as to your movements beyond this vague report. If you are at home, do pray write & tell me something of yourself & Co & what you mean to do next. Val <1> & Co are at Cannes. Ernestine <2> & I came here on Tuesday, & Charlie <3> joined us yesterday, for Pheasant shooting. There was to have been a party for the purpose this week – but they were put off, on account of the death of Lord Ronald Hamilton, Katie’s <4> 4th Brother. He was about seventeen & died at Malvern, <5> where he was staying with a private Tutor. He had never had good health, & though, I believe, he got on well enough with his studies, there was certainly a slight deficiency, so that he never could have got on in the world alone. Poor Ly Abercorn <6> was devoted to him, for that very reason perhaps – but I think she is quite resigned, & sees that it is for the best.
Ld A. <7> came over from Ireland, & Charlie, being on duty, accompanied him. From thence he came here, & is going on a short foreign tour, with Ld Hinchingbroke, <8> on the 1st Decr I suppose, to Italy. – What a mess poor dear Garibaldi <9> has made!
Yr affte Sister
Caroline
[envelope:]
not to be forwarded abroad
Henry Fox Talbot Esqre
Laycock Abbey
Chippenham
Notes:
1. William Henry Edgcumbe, ‘Val’, 4th Earl Mt Edgcumbe (1832–1917), JP & Ld Steward of the Royal Household; WHFT’s nephew ‘Bimbo’.
2. Ernestine Emma Horatia Edgcumbe (1843-1925), WHFT’s niece.
3. Charles Earnest Edgcumbe (1838–1915), JP, WHFT’s nephew.
4. Lord Ronald Douglas Hamilton (1849–1867), brother of Lady Katherine Elizabeth Edgcumbe, née Hamilton (1840–1874), wife of William Henry Edgcumbe.
5. Malvern, or Great Malvern, 9 mi SW of Worcestershire.
6. Louisa Jane Hamilton, née Russell, Lady Abercorn (1812–1905).
7. James Hamilton (1811–1885), 1st Duke of Abercorn.
8. Misspelling of Edward George Henry Montagu (b. 1839), Lord Hinchinbrooke and later Earl of Sandwich.
9. Giuseppe Garibaldi (1807–1882), Italian patriot. Caroline Edgcumbe probably refers to the 1867 expedition of Garibaldi, which led to his defeat at Mentana.