Markeaton Hall <1>
Derby
May 7.
My dear Henry
Thank you much for your letter – but before I make any comments thereupon I must tell you of our sympathy with poor Rosamond <2> & beg that you will ask Ela <3> to write us a few lines to say how she is getting on – All illnesses this spring seem to be long ones; I suppose the queer state of the atmosphere renders it antagonistic to reviving strength. Certainly I have found this to be the case for I am only now beginning to recover really. – I am pleased that you think the big Bulb a rarity – The Gardener thinks it will seed in which case you shall have some most certainly. The Specimens you sent we admire prodigiously – especially the Bomaria, Clerodendron Canadian Columbine & Yellow Ixia – I must get the latter next year from Haarlem – but could I have a cutting of the Bornaria & Clerodendron from Lacock? – This would be precisely the right moment I suppose. – A Catalogue came from a Nursery Garden (Bull) for Noel <4> this morning pretending to give all the new things – but neither of these were mentioned as I should instantly have commanded them.
My poor Brother Henry <5> makes very slow progress. He is still lying quite flat with his leg tightly bandaged so that he cannot move at all. They are looking out for a kind of bed carriage to enable him to get out of doors. –
Please to give my love to Constance <6> & hoping much for a good report of Rosamond
Believe me
Yr Affte Cousin
H G Mundy
Emily <7> thinks it very hard that she should never even have seen the farfamed Inventer of Photography &c. albeit he is her Uncle now!!
A Photograph of the Vase will reach Constance in due time but they are slow in printing them off.
[envelope:]
[blindstamped on rear flap:] Markeaton Hall, Derby
Henry Fox Talbot Esqre.
13 Great Stuart St
Edinburgh
Notes:
1. Markeaton Hall, Derbyshire, NW of Derby: home of the Mundy family.
2. Rosamond Constance ‘Monie’ Talbot (1837–1906), artist & WHFT’s 2nd daughter.
3. Ela Theresa Talbot (1835–1893), WHFT’s 1st daughter.
4. Francis Noel Mundy (1833–1903), WHFT’s nephew.
5. Henry Frampton (1804-1879).
6. Constance Talbot, née Mundy (1811–1880), WHFT’s wife.
7. Emily Maria Georgiana Cavendish (1845-1929), married Francis Noel Mundy in 1864.