Melbury <1>
Saturday
Decr 17
My dear Henry
I enclose you a letter from A. <2> whereby you will see she has been anxiously expecting an answer from you – in hopes you may be moved to send her one. I am so glad you are coming here for Xmas – you will find plenty of kin – & some lovely flowers – particularly a Bignonia [nenusta?] beyond all praise. I have not given the seeds to Uncle W. <3> yet as he is still at Ab – but he & Uncle J. <4> come Monday. We diverted ourselves extremely at Came – they are pleasant goodnatured people & sans façon <5> which I like. We came thence yesterday & the Gallweys <6> also. Sir W. <7> is expected here today. En passant <8> we called at Minterne & found a new little cousin just born – a girl unluckily, to poor Theresa’s <9> great disappointment The other too [sic] are very pretty little creatures, especially Venetia – Aunt H. suggests the new one should be called Vivonia, a family name in the Strangways pedigree by way of keeping up the V’s. The weather was so bad we could not get to see Edward Digby’s <10> garden – Mama found a flower painted by her in the year 1788! for old Adm. Digby –
Love to Constance <11> & all the little ones –
Yr aff sister
Horatia
Wright <12> went off this morng to fetch Val. <13> & take him to Dover, where David is to be in waiting to receive him Ld Mt Ed <14> is already much the better for his quack doctors. Ld Leicester <15> is to marry Miss Whitbread – he is not yet of age! & there is a report about Ld Auckland <16> & Ly Falmouth <17> to that effect but requires confirmation
See the cover
[envelope:]
[inside flap:] Mama[?-under seal] desires me to say Uncle. H. will expect you on the 22nd. if not sooner
[recto:] W.Henry Fox Talbot Esqre.
Laycock Abbey
Chippenham
Notes:
1. Melbury, Dorset: one of the Fox Strangways family homes; WHFT was born there.
2. Amélina Petit De Billier, ‘Mamie’, ‘Amandier’ (1798–1876), governess and later close friend of the Talbot family [See Amélina's journal].
3. William Thomas Horner Fox Strangways, 4th Earl of Ilchester (1795–1865), botanist, art collector & diplomat.
4. John George Charles Fox Strangways (1803–1859), MP.
5. Without affectation.
6. Lady Harriet Payne Gallwey (1784-1845), née Quin, widow of Lt Gen Sir William Payne Gallwey (1759-1831), 1st Bart, and Emily Anne, née Frankland-Russell (b. 1822), wife of Sir William Gallwey.
7. Sir William Payne Gallwey (1807-1881), 2nd Bart.
8. On the way.
9. Theresa Anna Maria Digby, née Fox Strangways (1814–1874), WHFT’s cousin.
10. Sir Edward St Vincent Digby, 9th Baron Digby (1809–1889).
11. Constance Talbot, née Mundy (1811–1880), WHFT’s wife.
12. James Wright, footman to the Talbots & Constable for Lacock.
13. William Henry Edgcumbe, ‘Val’, 4th Earl Mt Edgcumbe (1832–1917), JP & Ld Steward of the Royal Household; WHFT’s nephew ‘Bimbo’.
14. Ernest Augustus Edgcumbe, Lord Valletort, 3rd Earl of Mt Edgcumbe (1797–1861), WHFT’s brother-in-law.
15. Thomas William Coke, 2nd Earl Leicester (1822–1909) married Juliana Whitbread.
16. George Eden, 1st Earl of Auckland (1784–1849), Governor General of India; he died unmarried.
17. In the event, Lady Falmouth, Anne Frances Boscawen, née Bankes (1789–1864), did not marry Auckland. The sister of William James Bankes (1786-1855), her husband, the 1st Earl of Falmouth died in 1841.