32 Dover St
June 10
My dear Henry
We are so troubled at having heard nothing from Greta Bank <1> since your return that we much fear Constance<2> must be ill – especially as I wrote to her the beginning of the week, to beg to know if you all got safe home – Mr Mundy<3> is quite in a fidget as he fully expected his sister would be knocked up by all she did –. He is just gone off to the Crystal Palace <4> & left me in charge to write to you. – I am glad Caroline is in Waiting <5> today as she will like to see this Ceremonial –. The Ball at Lady Breadalbane’s<6> pleased her extremely because the ballroom they have just built is exactly like an old Baronial Hall with open roof &c & fitted up in excellent taste –. There is a stained Glass window at one end, under wh the Orchestra sat which was so brilliantly lighted from the outside, that the figures & colours were perfectly visible altho’ the Room was extremely well lighted inside – and over the Dais on which the Queen <7> sat were suspended little banners in the old style, with the royal Arms, Portuguese do &c &c – The King of Portugal and his Brother<8> are very nice boys & Sir Roderick Murchison who escorted them over the British Museum<9> told Ly Harington<10> that they were particularly intelligent & well informed for their age – but that their attendants were awfully heavy & ignorant! The D. of Oporto is the best looking, but he rather shocked or rather strained Etiquette by laughing excessively loud at the Opera at Lablache in the Barbiere de Seviglia [sic]<11> wh diverted them both beyond measure – & the Q. could not help laughing at their delight! – Ernestine<12> is looking very well but I do not think C. is so – and mourning never becomes her very well –
Mr Gaisford<13> is very cross at having to go into garrison at Portsmouth & wanted to resign in consequence but Ld Lansdowne<14> wd not hear of such a thing! Mr G. is very wrath with Ld Methuen & Lord Broughton<15> & many others of his Regt who volunteered to do this, without consulting the rest but I must say that for a man who has nothing on Earth to do, he is very absurd about it. I believe he leaves Town today. Other Regts are doing the same & Mr & Lady Elizabeth Buck<16> are leaving Town & going to settle in the Barracks at Plymouth.
Mrs Gladstone<17> enquired much after Constance when I saw her two days ago, & expected to have seen her in Town this spring. –
Hoping to hear very soon & with love to all –
Yr Affte
H Ga Mundy
Uncle Harry<18> is in Town & very well. Theresa & Ed Digby<19> are just come up – I hear a very good account of him, but have not yet seen them.
Notes:
1. Greta Bank, near Keswick, Cumbria - the Talbot family stayed there frequently in the 1850s.
2. Constance Talbot, née Mundy (30 Jan 1811 - 9 Sep 1880), m. WHFT 20 Dec 1832.
3. William Mundy (1801-1877), politician, WHFT's brother-in-law.
4. Paxton's Crystal Palace, assembled of iron and glass components for the Great Exhibition of 1851 in Hyde Park, was taken down and reassembled in 1854 on Sydenham Hill, one of the highest points of greater London.
5. Lady Caroline Augusta Edgcumbe, née Feilding (1808-1881); WHFT's half-sister.
6. Lady Elizabeth Campbell, née Baillie, Lady Breadalbane (1803-1861) married John Campbell, 2nd Marquess of Breadalbane (1796-1862). Her grand ball was held on 7 June at their residence on Park Lane in London.
7. Queen Victoria (1819–1901).
8. King Peter V, Pedro de Alcântara Maria Fernando Miguel Rafael Gonzaga Xavier João António Leopoldo Vítor Francisco de Assis Júlio Amélio de Saxe-Coburgo-Gotha e Bragança (1837-1861). His younger brother was Luís Filipe Maria Fernando Pedro de Alcântara António Miguel Rafael Gabriel Gonzaga Xavier Francisco de Assis João Augusto Júlio Valfando de Saxe-Coburgo-Gotha e Bragança (1838-1889). Luis, the Duke of Oporto, became King Luis I upon his brother's death. Although his manners were rough at this young age, he was a man of science and must have particularly enjoyed the British Museum. Later, he became particularly interested in oceanography.
9. Sir Roderick Murchison (1792-1871), Scottish geologist, served on the Royal Commission on the British Museum (1847–1849).
10. Lady Elizabeth Williams Stanhope, née Green, Lady Harrington (d. 1898), wife of the 5th Earl of Harrington.
11. Rossini’s comic opera, The Barber of Seville . Luigi Lablache (1794-1858) was an Italian opera singer, noted for comic roles.
12. Ernestine Emma Horatia Edgcumbe (1843-1925), WHFT's niece.
13. Capt Thomas Gaisford (1816-1898), JP, WHFT's brother-in-law.
14. Lord Henry Petty Fitzmaurice, 3rd Marquess of Lansdowne (1780-1863), MP & noted statesman; WHFT's uncle.
15. Frederick Henry Paul Methuen, 2nd Baron Methuen (1818-1891); John Cam Hobhouse, 1st Baron Broughton of Broughton-de-Gyfford (1786-1869).
16. George Stucley Buck (1812-1900), of Hartland Abbey, Devonshire, MP and sheriff; and his wife, Irish-born Lady Elizabeth, née O'Brien (1810?-1870). As the daughter of a Marquess, she was Lady Buck and he was Mr Buck at the time of this letter. Later, in 1858, he assumed the title of 1st Baronet Stucley and became Sir George Stucley Stucley; his wife then assumed the name of Lady Stucley.
17. Elizabeth Honoria, née Bateson (d. 1862), the wife of Captain John Neilson Gladstone (1807–1863), MP.
18. Henry Stephen Fox Strangways, 'Harry', 3rd Earl of Ilchester (1787-1858); WHFT's uncle.
19. Theresa Anna Maria Digby, née Fox Strangways (1814-1874), WHFT's cousin, and her husband, Edward Digby, 9th Baron Digby (1809 –1889), .