Laycock Abbey
10th Dec[?]
Dear Henry
I wish you to go to Mr King <1> & Shew him the enclosed Letter, & ask him if you as Executor could not appear in Lincolns Inn for me as it would be hard to make me take a journey on purpose & therefore I conclude there must be some remedy, for I might be bedridden. What a farce to make me give my assent to a mode of payment which of course only necessity could make one tolerate. I suppose this is one of the fictions of the Law. As I find Lord Ilchester’s <2> Steward has paid nothing since the Spring, ask Mr King to write to him, he knows his name & address. He perhaps does not know who he is to pay it to, otherwise I cannot account for it, & I wish it all to be received before I get Stilwells <3> Xmas accounts that I may know how I stand. you do not vouchsafe much intelligence about my affairs, Messrs Malet, Hammersley <4> &c and about the Stables, I want to know who is taking care of them? and if Mr Higgs has any prospect of disposing of the Lease. I wish Lord Ilchester’s Steward to be written to immediately so pray don’t neglect this. to desire him to pay all that is due up to Michaelmas last.
Take care of Mr Scott [Mercey’s?] letter to bring it back to me. What entraves & désagrémens <5> even with my small concerns! I had rather pay Mr King for writing the Letter to Lord I’s Steward than that either you or I should do it, because the fewer money transactions one has with friends & relations the better for one’s friendship & happiness.
Let Cooper take the note as soon as he can it is close by
Have you been to the Marble works? <6>
I believe Kit <7> goes tomorrow but they are uncertain people
Notes:
1. William Read King, solicitor, London.
2. Henry Stephen Fox Strangways, 3rd Earl of Ilchester (1787–1858).
3. Of Stilwell & Company.
4. Of Hammersley & Company, bankers, London.
5. Hindrances and vexations.
6. Possibly the works making the stone for his stepfather, Rear Admiral Charles Feilding (1780- 2 September 1837), Royal Navy.
7. Christopher Rice Mansel Talbot (1803–1890), immensely wealthy landowner, mathematician & politician; WHFT’s Welsh cousin.