Lacock Abbey
May 16th 31
Sir
the following is Banks’s <1> account of last weeks work
the two windows blanked round and finished – the door case of the dining-room finished all but cleaning down the paving between the Bannisters nearly finished the Bridge has had two coats of paint
on thursday night the 12th inst there was a ball held at the Angel Inn, Chippenham by the friends of Neale <2> & Boldero <3> – when both their effigys were burnd in the Street by a numerous assembly & with Cheers of Talbot & reform for Ever <4>
Your Obdt Servt
C. Fitzsimmons
H. F. Talbot Esqr
Notes:
1. George Banks, snr (1786–1864), stonemason & coalseller, Lacock.
2. A misspelling for Joseph Neeld (1789–1856), MP & botanist, conservative MP for Chippenham from 1830 to 1856.
3. Col Henry George Boldero (d. 1873), Conservative politician; sat for Chippenham in 1831 and from 1835 until his resignation in 1859. He was brother-in-law to the other Conservative Member of Chippenham, Joseph Neeld.
4. WHFT fought his first election, as a Whig, in 1831, losing to Neeld and Boldero, but gained a seat the following year, 1832.