Lacock
25 Feb. 1844

My Dear Horatia

I was going to return to London tomorrow or next day, but your letter w^ch I received this morning makes me think that you are really coming home on Wednesday, and that being the case I shall put off going till Thursday, that I may have the pleasure of seeing you. Today has been amusement & réjouissance ^<1> all day in honour of Matilda’s ^<2> birthday. I gave her a splendid copy of Puss in Boots with a dozen illustration pictures by a German artist, & her mamma gave her a pretty set of tea things, & other presents from other quarters increased the satisfaction. We were so well occupied at home with diversions & especially with Puss, that we had hardly time to remark that out of doors it poured both Cats and Dogs all day – Mr Kenrick ^<3> prophesies it will rain for a month.

Give my love to all at Coedriglan ^<4> and all whom you meet in Glamorganshire, for they must be cousins –

Your aff^te
Henry

I have announced in Longman & Co’s Catalogue, or Monthly list, ^<5> the forthcoming appearance of a work to be entitled the Pencil of Nature; ^<6> – We mean to guarantee to the Public that the plates will be executed by persons who know nothing whatever of drawing; & they may have all confidence in what they find there, since no artist is to be allowed to have any hand in it.

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Notes:

1. Rejoicing.

2. Matilda Caroline Gilchrist-Clark, ‘Tilly’, née Talbot (1839–1927), WHFT’s 3^rd daughter.

3. Dr George Cranmer Kenrick, surgeon living at The Grove, Melksham.

4. Near Cardiff.

5. The book catalogue of Longman & Company, publishers, London.

6. WHFT, The Pencil of Nature (London: Longman, Brown, Green, & Longmans, June 1844–April 1846 [issued in six fascicles]).