Penllergare
Saturday
My dear Henry
I am quite provoked with myself for not bringing the steel plates down – I have sent to order some from your man in Red Lion court <1> and will replace any you will kindly spare me, as I hope you will do at Mrs Talbot’s <2> request (she is writing to beg for me), that we may be able to get on – I think your invention <3> more & more charming and am provoked with myself for not having the plates to engrave this very day, with the sun shining most photographically! However your daughters <4> & their mother will enjoy a walk and be able to get, a not unfavourable impression for their first time of seeing our valley, tho’ it is November! I hope we may have an equally fine day on Monday and get a drive down to the seaside – now they are going out to see the garden – Pray tell me what kind of flower is the Morina elegans? a thistle I suppose – Mary <5> will be here on Monday and shall have her plant – shall the Morina be kept in a cold frame for the winter? and the Campanula in the Greenhouse? both are new to us and we are very much obliged for them –
Believe me to remain your very affte cousin
Emma Llewelyn
[envelope:]
Henry Fox Talbot Esqr.
Lacock Abbey
Chippenham
Notes:
1. Probably Taylor & Francis, Printers & Publishers of Chemical Gazette, Philosophical Magazine, Annals of Natural History, and Journal of the Photographic Society, Red Lion Court, 169 Fleet Street.
2. Constance Talbot, née Mundy (1811–1880), WHFT’s wife.
3. Photoglyphic Engraving, WHFT's second major photogravure process.
4. Ela Theresa Talbot (1835–1893), WHFT’s 1st daughter, Rosamond Constance ‘Monie’ Talbot (1837–1906), artist & WHFT’s 2nd daughter, and Matilda Caroline Gilchrist-Clark, ‘Tilly’, née Talbot (1839–1927), WHFT’s 3rd daughter.
5. Mary Thereza Talbot (1795–1861), WHFT’s cousin.