Laycock Abbey
25^th August

How persevering I am in writing! & you in the reverse. I hope you are at least better employed in climbing les rochers escarpés ^<1> & the Mountainous regions where you are – Alpestre, scosceso, erto e selvaggio, degno d’un alma audace ^<2> –

Porter has just brought me twenty six he did yesterday ^<3>

Vale

I was shocked to read of poor Letitia Mildmay’s ^<4> death in the Papers, after a very short illness –

[envelope:]
Henry Fox Talbot Es^r
Post Office
Monmouth
Lacock Abbey
Chippenham

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Notes:

1. The steep rocks.

2. Alpine, steep, precipitous and wild, worthy of a daring soul.

3. Charles Porter (b. 1828), a servant at Lacock Abbey, was the frequent subject of photographs, and occasionally also photographic assistant; this would have referred to 26 photographic prints that he had made.

4. A relation of Jane St John Mildmay, née Mildmay (1765–1857).