Laycock abbey
6 March
My Dear Henry
I am so vexed at the difficulty & expence of houses, c’est vraiment jetter l’argent dans la rivière cela ne sort pas de mon esprit. <1> This is the dearest moment in London for taking one. Constance’s own idea of being confined here was a very rational one.<2> Where she would give Mr Kendrick <3> five guineas she must give Stone twenty, & all other items in proportion. Besides one never heard of anybody having two such illnesses, I believe it never occurs. Kendrick is reckoned very clever, & in the country one has their undivided attention. Afterwards you might have taken possession of your room in Sackville Street, <4> to see your friends & the Savans as long as you liked, & she having two Children to amuse her would have had plenty of occupation during your absence. I don’t think it is too late even now to change your mind & come down again, it is reason enough that you cannot find a house that suits you. The Gardener has sown your seeds in the Green house. I told him to plant uncommon honeysuckles (there are some here) under your windows, it is too good & sunny a place to put merely things that flower on every hedge. The weather has been ungenial, cold northeast Winds inimical to planting. He says it is an error to suppose that Hollies do not like this Soil, They are fond of gravel which abounds. They grow slowly everywhere. The fence beyond the cascade was mended by the garden men just before we went to Melbury, <5> but there is plenty of rough stuff to do it again & quite good enough for the people to steal. I hope you got a letter I sent you soon after you got to town, it had the Salisbury Post mark, & was directed in a mean & vulgar hand, I hope it was not from the Mayor or I shall have a low opinion of him or his honour. Among the old letters I find that the Court of Chancery planted many thousand Trees, I intend to make Mr Awdry shew them me. It appears that the Father of the present Bishop of Exeter was the Man employed by the Court of C. to value this estate & in 1807 he came here & raised the rents. I went to visit that new house of Mr Barton’s, <6> there is no pavement round the house, but heaps of stones & rubbish. It is now painted so good a colour that it is not conspicuous, & besides is masked to a certain degree with trees, but there is a house ten times worse, not yet finished by the roadside a glaring white, & seen much from the South gallery widows. I told Mr Awdry about Phelps’s <7> bill & he seemed much surprized but promised to examine into it. I really think you let time slip away about the Bailiff as you intend to retain Mr Awdry for certain things & he is very willing to be retained, to receive the rents, renew leases, & to be consulted whenever you want him, I cannot imagine what difficulty you find in writing to him on the Subject. Innumerable small things occur every day here which exactly require a Bailiff, but are too minute to summon him all the way from Chippenham. <8> I could write any thing but I feel I never could say any thing harsh or disagreeable to Mr Awdry, he is so civil & gentle & nervous. He is growing old & is not equal to managing so many people’s affairs. He gets confused & loses his head.
I wish the Bailiff had been established here while we staid, I think we might
Notes:
1. It really is throwing money down the drain, and that’s not in my nature.
2. Constance Talbot, née Mundy (1811–1880), WHFT’s wife. She was preparing for the birth of her 2nd daughter, Rosamond Constance Talbot, which occured on 16 March.
3. Dr Kendrick, Talbot family doctor in Wiltshire.
4. 31 Sackville Street, London residence of the Feildings, often used as a London base by WHFT.
5. Melbury, Dorset: one of the Fox Strangways family homes; WHFT was born there.
6. Possibly Thomas Barton, listed as a tenant in 1826.
7. Philip Phelps, Surveyor of Taxes & Bailiff, Lacock.
8. Chippenham, Wiltshire: largest town near Lacock, 3 miles N.