My Dr Henry
Not that you are the least bit dear to me at present – If you missed my letter to Paris <1> you did not miss all my messages & notes to London – & after just saying you hoped to contrive to come here Wednesday, you put it off till Thursday, & Now in the most barefaced manner put it off till Friday or Saturday – where I really shd not care a bit for you, as I wished so particularly you shd meet Mary <2> &c here – Mary goes Friday, & the rest Monday, & if you had paid proper attention to my numerous notes you would have discovered that we do not move en masse to Melbury, <3> as I am not going there at all. – We wished particularly to have had you for the fair, but if you are not in time to see our Yule log lighted Christmas Eve I do not want you at all, the least bit. – And any how you will have lost so many days of our Christmas meeting, as [illegible] will soon arrive –
After you have once looked at the Garden at Abby, you might botanize in idea with William as well hereafter at Melbury as at Abby. – How could you suppose I shd open any bodies letter? I do not know your hand, & certainly shd not think of such a thing if I did – & I cant think what put it into your head – Harriot <4> says one to [Henry?] went on by Henry [illegible deletion] but I do not know it was yours, nor did I know you had written. – Your bed is tired of waiting for you & so am I of expecting you –
My dr Henry
as you behave
Yours affly
H Frampton
Moreton <5>
Wednesday
H. Talbot Esqr
Notes:
1. Letter not located.
2. Possibly Mary Frampton (1773–1846), botanist & author.
3. Melbury, Dorset: one of the Fox Strangways family homes; WHFT was born there.
4. Harriot Georgiana Mundy, née Frampton (1806-1886),WHFT’s cousin & sister-in-law.
5. Moreton, Dorset: home of the Frampton family.