Lacock
11 Decr 1842
My Dear Mother
I must write a line today, altho’ I have hardly time to do so as it will otherwise perhaps reach Came<1> after your departure and you have given us no intimation where you are going to next – We have also had our share of thick fogs here and raw weather, today is much milder but dark in the morning and rainy in the evening. I propose to come to Melbury <2> on the 22d pray ask my uncle if that would be a convenient time? We think of spending January & February in London to avoid the winter residence here, and also because houses are cheap then, so that one can see one’s friends at half price – We also talk of going to the Rhine in March or April and staying six months in that neighbourhood, altho’ I should want to return to England myself, once or twice during the interval – But all this is a projet dans l’air <3> sent to amuse you as building châteaux en Espagne <4> is much cheaper than employing Hopper <5> or any other architect, & they are more easily pulled down again – It is wonderful indeed that the news of the Christening should have penetrated into Dorsetshire already – Charley <6> is very flourishing and wonderfully strong, his delight is in beating the table – Tell me what has become of William? <7> Is he at Came also, or at Moreton <8> or where?
Your affte
Henry
Lady E. Feilding
Came House
Dorchester
Notes:
1.Came House, near Dorchester, the seat of Col. George Dawson Damer. His wife was Mary Georgiana Emma (Minnie) née Payne. She is mentioned in Harriot Georgiana Mundy, The Journal of Mary Frampton, from the Year 1779, until the Year 1846
(London: Sampston Low, Marston, Searle, & Rivington, 1885).2. Melbury, Dorset: one of the Fox Strangways family homes; WHFT was born there.
3. In the air.
4. In Spain.
5. Thomas Hopper (1776–1856), architect & surveyor, London.
6. Charles Henry Talbot (1842–1916), antiquary & WHFT’s only son.
7. William Thomas Horner Fox Strangways, 4th Earl of Ilchester (1795–1865), botanist, art collector & diplomat.
8. Moreton, Dorset: home of the Frampton family.