Lowther Castle <1>
18th August
My Dear Henry
I wish you would write to me & tell me your adventures since you left Melbury. <2> I saw so many pretty weeds at Sprotborough <3> that I could not help thinking of you every minute & about here there grows wild a very pretty bright purple Geranium or rather I believe it is a Pelargonium: I gathered a bit to enclose to you, but it withered before I had time to desiccate it. This is a most magnificent Gothic structure, the character is preserved throughout, even to the minutest furniture & I sleep in a bed in the shape of a tomb in Henry 7ths Chapel.
I went to day to see Ulls Water, <4> it is a beautiful Lake, surrounded by fine Mountain Scenery. I have not been to see any Places except Thoresby, Lord Manvers's, <5> & Clumber, the Duke of Newcastle's. <6> Desire your Aunt Mary <7> to write to me
Believe me My Dearest Your affte
E Feilding
Henry Talbot
18 Aug. 1814 <9>
Notes:
1. Lowther Castle, Cumbria. It was the family seat of the Earls of Lonsdale.
2. Melbury, Dorset: one of the Fox Strangways family homes; WHFT was born there.
3. Sprotborough Hall, Doncaster, home of Captain Sir Joseph Copley, 3rd Baronet (1769-1838). [See Doc. No: 00578].
4. Ulls Water, Paterdale, Penrith, Cumbria.
5. Charles Herbert Pierrepont, 2nd Earl Manvers (1778-1860), owner of Thoresby Park, Ollerton, Nottinghamshire.
6. Henry Pelham-Clinton, 4th Duke of Newcastle under Lyne (1785-1851), owner of Clumber Park, Worksop, Nottinghamshire.
7. Lady Mary Lucy Cole, née Strangways, first m. Talbot (1776-1855), WHFT's aunt.
8. Rear Admiral Charles Feilding (1780-1837), Royal Navy; WHFT's step-father.
9. Written in another hand at the back of address panel.