Mount Edgcumbe <1>
Devonport.
Monday 14th August 1876
My dear Henry
I had a prosperous journey to Exeter – but was very glad not to be obliged to go farther that day, as the heat was intense, & the sun was broiling, even inside the carriages. After all I was ten minutes before the train at Corsham.
I had an easy journey next day from 2.20 to 4.45 – It was very pleasant on the water – & I went & sat in the shade of the orangetrees, before going up to the house.
Besides the Dss of Abercorn & her youngest Son but one, Freddy Hamilton, & Carry & Athole Liddell, <2> I found various Archæologists assembled. One of them was Mr Planché, <3> a very agreable, lively old Gentleman of 83 – He is the well known dramatist – & besides that, he is Somerset Herald. There was also Rouge Dragon Herald – & others.
A young man, Mr Borlase, grandson of the author of Antiquities of Cornwall, <4> has made a voyage to Japan, & visited the interior. He described a magnificent temple he had visited – which was approached by an avenue 100 miles long, somewhere in the mountains. The last 10 miles of the avenue consisted entirely of Criptomeria [sic] Japonica.
Today the Duchess & her Son departed for Ireland. The rest of the party, with the 2 eldest girls & Alick <5> are gone up in a Steamer to Cotehele <6> – where they are to have a spread in the great Hall – Val <7> goes on with the others, (the Savans) in the afternoon, to Bodmin; & my belongings return home.
The garden in front of the library windows, beats any thing I ever saw, in point of colours & luxuriance of growth; in calceolarias geraniums &c – They grow more like the flowers at Cannes or in Italy, than what one usually sees in England. A very pretty border is made by a row of Argyratum, against another of that small pink geranium with variegated leaves. You cannot think what a pretty colour is produced by these two soft tints blended together.
I should very much like to have a line from some one, to tell me how you all are, & especially how Amandier is going on. I hope I did not tire her. Love to all –
Yr affte Sister
Caroline
Notes:
1. Mt Edgcumbe, near Plymouth: seat of the Earl of Mt Edgcumbe.
2. Louisa Jane Hamilton, née Russell, Duchess of Abercorn (1812–1902) and her son Lord Frederick Spencer Hamilton (1856–1928); Caroline Cecilia Liddell, née Edgcumbe, niece of Ernest Augustus Edgcumbe, Lord Valletort, 3rd Earl of Mt Edgcumbe and her husband Athol Charles Liddell son of Henry Thomas Liddell, 1st Earl of Ravensworth (1797–1878), statesman and poet.
3. James Robinson Planché (1796–1880).
4. William Borlase (1695–1772), Antiquities of Cornwall (London: 1769).
5. Piers Alexander Hamilton Edgcumbe, Viscount Valletort (1865–1944).
6. Cotehele, Cornwall: ancient house, seat of the Earl of Mt Edgcumbe, now a National Trust Property.
7. William Henry Edgcumbe, ‘Val’, 4th Earl Mt Edgcumbe (1832–1917), JP & Ld Steward of the Royal Household; WHFT’s nephew ‘Bimbo’.