112 Gloucester Terrace Hyde Park London
April 20
My dear Henry
I Sincerely congratulate you on the prospect of a suitable match for your dearest child <1> and earnestly hope her future life may be as happy, as that she has already experienced in the sweet haven of Home. Her sisters will the less feel parting from her, since her future residence is to be, where they have already spent several winters & which will now have a fresh attraction for them.
I should sooner have replied to your kind letter containing this announcement, but that my whole time & energy have been called for in nursing my dear Thereza <2> thro’ a most painful attack of rheumatic gout, which seized her the 3d day after the birth of her little girl –
Tho’ better she is still very weak, and unable to move herself in bed without constant assistance –
Pray say every thing that is Kind for me, to Mrs Talbot & your daughters, <3> I wish I had had the opportunity of knowing their younger sister –
Believe me your very affte cousin
Emma Llewelyn
[envelope:]
Henry Fox Talbot Eqr.
11 Randolph Crescent
Edinburgh
Notes:
1. Matilda Caroline Gilchrist-Clark, ‘Tilly’, née Talbot (1839–1927), WHFT’s 3rd daughter, was married in 1859 to John Gilchrist-Clark (1830–1881), Scottish JP; WHFT’s son-in-law.
2. Thereza Mary Story-Maskelyne, née Dillwyn Llewelyn (1834–1926), photographer, daughter of Emma Thomasina Llewelyn, née Talbot (1806–1881), photographer; WHFT’s Welsh cousin and John Dillwyn Llewelyn (1810–1882), Welsh photographer, JP & High Sheriff, and wife of Nevil Story-Maskelyne (1823–1911), photographer.
3. Constance Talbot, née Mundy (1811–1880), WHFT’s wife, Ela Theresa Talbot (1835–1893), WHFT’s 1st daughter, and Rosamond Constance ‘Monie’ Talbot (1837–1906), artist & WHFT’s 2nd daughter.