Melbury <1>
Thursday
Decr 13th
My dear Henry
I wish you joy of your election – I am so delighted it is over & you are really in Parliament which I have longed for so many years. There is the first good effect of the Reform bill <2> – Papa <3> thanks you for your letter & announcement of the joyful news – I think to be elected & married all at the same time is too much good fortune for one man. As I conclude you are in town, I will not put the rest of the family to an unnecessary expense of postage, but trust to you for informing them that we are safe & well, & I will do myself the honor of writing to Mama <4> tomorrow. They are coming back from Redlynch <5> today or tomorrow & Aunt H. & Louisa <6> are expected tomorrow. It is supposed there will be no contest for Dorsetshire, & that Ld Ashley, W. Bankes Mr Ponsonby <7> will come in quietly – I envy Mama & Caroline <8> the first sight of Constance <9> very much, but I hope soon to make up for it when we meet at Laycock – how I shall think of you next Thursday, & pray for your happiness dear Henry – Pray give my love to Mama & Caroline –
your very affte sister
Horatia
I always forgot to thank you for that aimable <10> letter you wrote to Amandier with which she was very much touchée <11>
W. Henry Fox Talbot Esqre
31 Sackville Street
London
Notes:
1. Melbury, Dorset: one of the Fox Strangways family homes; WHFT was born there.
2. The Reform bill of 1832.
3. Rear Admiral Charles Feilding (1780–1837), Royal Navy; WHFT’s step-father.
4. Lady Elisabeth Theresa Feilding, née Fox Strangways, first m Talbot (1773–1846), WHFT’s mother.
5. Redlynch, Somerset, seat of the Earls of Ilchester (Barons of Redlynch).
6. Lady Harriet Frampton, née Fox Strangways (d. 1844) , and Louisa Charlotte Frampton.
7. Anthony Ashley Cooper, Lord Ashley, 7th Earl of Shaftsbury (1801–1885), MP; William John Bankes (d. 1855), sat for Dorset from 1832 until 1834; William Francis Spencer Ponsonby (1787–1855), politician; sat for Dorsetshire from 1832 until 1837.
8. Caroline Augusta Edgcumbe, née Feilding, Lady Mt Edgcumbe (1808–1881); WHFT’s half-sister.
9. Constance Talbot, née Mundy (1811–1880), WHFT’s wife.
10. Nice, kind.
11. Touched; moved.