All Souls Day!

My dear Henry

Our gratitude to you is superlative for the noble supply of Quinces, which arrived quite safely & in good preservation. Some of them are splendid – quite the largest I ever saw & as we have not had one for several years, you may guess how acceptable is your present. I shall tell Noel about the White Lily when they return tomorrow from Northamptonsh^e – . I was at Merthyr Mawr a fortnight ago – where I had not visited Jane for 7 years – Isabella came over to see me & brought a pot of Amaryllis umbellata not undulata? which she said was an old thing now become rare & which Aunt Mary always used to have in the Morning room at Penrice – It has the further merit of being scarcely ever out of blossom – I wonder whether you remember it? She has promised me a Hamper of “partings” as she has many of the old Penrice favorites – which as poor Uncle W^m use to say, may possibly be had “for love” but cannot by any means be procured “for money”. We did not have any Earthquake here – but I shall never forget the first we ever experienced at Malta when the sofa moved up & down. It is a horrid sensation & seems to deprive one of all sense of security. Afterwards we had another in Switzerland & once I felt one here but Noel felt the worst of all in the Pyrenees. – I cannot but regret that they are going to remain at Venice for the winter – So few people stay there beyond a week or so that I fear there is no chance of any kind of society for Ela & Rosamond. which they would have found in other places – & such a want of variety is much to be lamented. Probably too this decision implies that Constance continues in too delicate a state of health to undertake a journey. It was unfortunate that they happened to go there. The next time Charles comes to us it is to be in the summer when he can see Haddon & Hardwick &cc. ^<1>

Y^r aft Cousin
Harriot G Mundy

[envelope:]
H. F. Talbot Esq^re
Lacock Abbey
Chippenham
[in another hand, recto:] Above ½ oz. RS

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Notes:

1. Stately homes in Derbyshire: Haddon Hall, owned by the Dukes of Rutland, ahd Hardwick Hall, then owned by the Dukes of Devonshire.