Abbotsbury Castle <1>
29 March
My Dear Henry,
It is thirteen years since I have been here, and I am very much struck with with [sic] the quantity that has been done in the way of improvement, and with not very large means. It shews what a steady perseverance may do. My Grandmother Ilchester <2> (who built it) went on all her life persuaded that nothing would grow, and nothing could be done, beyond the walls of the house. – The Green house is full of beautiful things, nor can I divine why yours should not be the same, for in size they are much alike, and heated in the same manner. Her garden you know is reclaimed from the wilds & every year she seems to take in a new bit, like Robinson Crusoe. The Shrubs are much cut up by this unusual winter, and I find that few gardens had during that long frost any legumes except potatoes. Now this speaks well for Reid, <3> because all the Winter through we were never without Celeri [sic] & Chouxfleurs & various others.
The two Mary’s <4> [sic] set off this morning to Minterne, thence to Kilmington & to visit the Fords as [sic] Bath, & so home. I gave the petition for Miss Davis’s brother to Lord Lansdowne, <5> who sent it to Lord John Russell, <6> I suppose we shall only know the result by the man being transported or not. I don’t suppose they take any other notice, Tho’ I have just had a most amiable answer from Lord Minto <7> about a poor Naval Officer who had written to me to beg me to speak for him. I have now an application from one of Hayward’s <8> sons to ask Lord Lansdowne for a place in the Excise.
I wish when you go to town you would settle with Hammersley <9> about removing my French funds, as they are going to lower the rentes at Paris there is no motive for keeping them there. It seems that Mr King <10> declines all business except for all our family’s,<11> [illegible deletion] on account of his habits which includes all of Feilding, Strangways & Talbot blood – He told this to Matilda <12> the other day when she sent for him about making some Deed. Pray answer this & tell me what day you leave home.
Affly yr
EF
Henry Fox Talbot Esqr
Laycock Abbey
Chippenham
Wiltshire
Notes:
1. Abbotsbury, Dorset: home of William Thomas Horner Fox Strangways.
2. Elizabeth Horner Strangways, 1st Countess of Ilchester built Abbotsbury Castle in 1765.
3. John Reid, head gardener at Lacock Abbey.
4. Lady Mary Lucy Cole, née Strangways, first m. Talbot (1776–1855), WHFT’s aunt, and probably Mary Frampton (1773–1846), botanist & author.
5. Henry Petty Fitzmaurice, 3rd Marquess of Lansdowne (1780–1863), MP, WHFT’s uncle.
6. Lord John Russell (1792–1878), whig MP and statesman, Prime Minister from 1846 to 1852 and again from 1865 to 1866.
7. Elliot Murray, 2nd Earl of Minto (1782–1859), statesman.
8. Possibly a son of Thomas Hayward (b. 1783), tenant farmer, Wick Farm, Lacock.
9. Of Hammersley & Company, bankers, London.
10. Of William Read King & Son, solicitors, London.
11. Text obscured under seal.
12. Probably Matilda Feilding (1775-1849), WHFT's 'aunt' - sister of Charles Feilding, his stepfather.