Cotehele House <1>
Calstock
Tavistock.
March 6th 1872
My dear Henry
I have been intending to write to you for several days past – but have always been hindered. I received your letter of the 19th ultmo for which many thanks. I now write especially to thank you for your trouble in executing the Powers of Attorney, to enable me to sell out £500 of 3 per Cent. Consols. I was not sure whether you or I would have to do this? Now please tell me if Stilwell <2> will defray the cost of the P. of Attorney – or whether I am indebted to you for it? Stilwell has sent me the receipt of his Broker, for the Sales. Ought I to send it to you as the Sale is made out for you, not me – or keep it, or send it back to Stilwell? – We have not been doing much lately. You know, of course, that poor Lady Brownlow <3> died on the 28th of Jany – at the age of 80 – Mr & Mrs Edgcumbe <4> had gone to stay with her, when they heard how much more ill she was getting. I had spent Christmas week with her – which I know was a pleasure to her. Flora St George (née Porcelli,) <5> is her Heiress. – What a grand success the Thanksgiving at St Paul’s was! Val <6> was there – & with his usual good luck & activity, managed, after taking his place, to slip out again & see the procession drive under the Portico – He then got back in time to see the ceremony, then walked thro’ the Streets, where the decorations were wonderfully good, & then shoved his way back to St Paul’s for the illuminations
Ernestine, Charlie, & Bessie Edgcumbe, <7> started on Monday for a little tour to Boscastle & Tintagel Castle (King Arthur’s abode,) – & I do not expect them back till Friday. – I am as busy as a bee, with my farm & garden – planting, mowing, thinning &c &c Best love to Constance, Amandier & my nieces <8> –
Yr affte Sister
Caroline
[envelope:]
Henry Fox Talbot Esqre
4 Circus
Bath
Lacock Abbey
Chippenham
Notes:
1. Cotehele, Cornwall: ancient house, seat of the Earl of Mt Edgcumbe, now a National Trust Property.
2. Of Stilwell & Company.
3. Emma Sophia Cust, née Edgcumbe, Lady Browlow (1791–1872), widow of John Cust, 1st Earl Brownlow.
4. George Edgcumbe (1800–1882) and his wife Fanny Lucy Edgcumbe, née Shelley.
5. Flora St George, née Porcelli, daughter of Sarah Anne MacDonald, whose mother was sister to Caroline Edgcumbe’s husband, Lord Mt Edgcumbe. [See Doc. No: 09638].
6. William Henry Edgcumbe, ‘Val’, 4th Earl Mt Edgcumbe (1832–1917), JP & Ld Steward of the Royal Household; WHFT’s nephew ‘Bimbo’.
7. Ernestine Emma Horatia Edgcumbe (1843-1925), WHFT’s niece, Charles Earnest Edgcumbe (1838–1915), JP, WHFT’s nephew and Elizabeth Katherine Edgcumbe, daughter of George Edgcumbe.
8. Constance Talbot, née Mundy (1811–1880), WHFT’s wife, Amélina Petit De Billier, ‘Mamie’, ‘Amandier’ (1798–1876), governess and later close friend of the Talbot family [See Amélina's journal ], Ela Theresa Talbot (1835–1893), WHFT’s 1st daughter, Rosamond Constance ‘Monie’ Talbot (1837–1906), artist & WHFT’s 2nd daughter, and Matilda Caroline Gilchrist-Clark, ‘Tilly’, née Talbot (1839–1927), WHFT’s 3rd daughter.