Richmond Hill
5 August
My Dear Henry
you did not tell me the purport of Lord Lansdowne’s <1> missing billet, & whether it was what I surmised, I am curious to know, so mind you tell me in yr next. I felt very lonesome without you, the day you went to Kew, & yet cannot wish you to waste all your Summer when you have real business to do elsewhere. I grieve you should have lost Landaff Castle, but perhaps next year you may get it. I am shocked to hear of that accident to Henry Fitzmaurice <2> pray tell me how he is. There have been such scenes during these Elections as would almost reconcile one to the ballot, which at all events is better than brick bats & Stones. Besides then Candidates would not be obliged to commit themselves in their speeches on the Hustings & say things they do not think for the sa<ke of> <3> <illegible> The Elections would pass quietly as they do in France
Henry Fox Talbot Esqr
Laycock abbey
Chippenham
Wilts
Notes:
1. Henry Petty Fitzmaurice, 3rd Marquess of Lansdowne (1780–1863), MP, WHFT’s uncle.
2. Henry Fitzmaurice, Lord Shelburne, 4th Marquess of Lansdowne (1816–1866), MP.
3. Text obscured by seal.