Bowden Hill, <1>
Chippenham,
Wilts.
My dear Mr Talbot –
I have been doing my best to try, and accommodate matters about the shooting you were kind enough to give me –
But having failed to arrange with Lord Lansdown and Mr Phillips <2> being such a bad neighbour I am sorry to say I must give it up in despair.
In addition to this your tenants are so ill-conditiond & young Joe Croker <3> so impertinent, that I should feel myself quite unsafe in their hands –
Therefore with my warmest thanks for your great kindness, I return you the concession you were good enough to make me.
In return for it may I venture to mention that whoever has the duty of looking after your woods very much neglects them to your injury –
With my renewed thanks and our best Compts to Mrs Talbot & your daughters <4>
Believe me Yours sincerely obliged
Henry Alworth Merewether
Notes:
1. Bowden Hill, Wiltshire, 1 mi SE of Lacock.
2. Henry Chas Keith Petty Fitzmaurice, 5th Marquess of Lansdowne; Earl of Shelburne (1845–1927).
3. Tenant farmer at Nethermore, habitually in arrears with his rent.
4. Constance Talbot, née Mundy (1811–1880), WHFT’s wife & Ela Theresa Talbot (1835–1893), WHFT’s 1st daughter, Rosamond Constance ‘Monie’ Talbot (1837–1906), artist & WHFT’s 2nd daughter & Matilda Caroline Gilchrist-Clark, ‘Tilly’, née Talbot (1839–1927), WHFT’s 3rd daughter.