1874
April 27.
Caro Kinsmanno! <1>
I greatly enjoy a little Floral or historical gossip with you. In this instance it is the latter & you must please to explain how & why Sir William Sharington <2> followed the example of his Betters? & like King Charles <3> “walked and talked after his head was cut off” – I happened to light upon the Journal of King Edward 6th <4> “writ withe hys owne hande” – and under the date 1548, is the following entry –
“The Lord Sudley Admiral of England was condemned to death & died in March ensuing. Sir William Sharington was also condemned for making false coin, which he himself confessed.<5> Divers also were put in the Tower.” <6>
“1549 April. Commission to Sir John Davies & Sir Willm Sharington to receive the first Payment and deliver the Quittance” – apparently from the K. of France.
Please enlighten my ignorance & say whether the false coining took place in his own room at Lacock! – and all about it –
Your sister Caroline <7> is too bad. I sent her some curious letters last February written by Miss Fox to your Mother <8> – temp. <9> Bonaparte & Elba <10> and she has never even taken the trouble to acknowledge them. I was too very ill at the time but wd not like the said letters being wasted & lost – & certainly am disappointed to find she does not value them. –
I wish I could shew you the M.S. Journal kept by my Aunt Mary Frampton <11> – with notes & additions by myself – it is very amusing & interesting. –
We have splendid weather, only it is rather too hot so suddenly – before one has discarded winter habits & garments. I never saw the Oaks burst so quickly – Uncle Wms <12> loveliest of dwarf Turquoise blue Iris is in full blow – 6 weeks earlier than last year. It is my favorite Flower & we have a collection of first rate Irises. Constance <13> being still at Bath it is useless to send her my love: especially as we have been corresponding lately.
Yr aff Cousin
H. G Mundy
Notes:
1. Fake italianisation of ‘Kinsman’.
2. Sir William Sharington (1495–1553), owner of Lacock Abbey and ancestor of WHFT.
3. Charles I of England (1600–1649). who chose to vote last. He was beheaded on 30 January 1649.
4. Edward VI of England (1537–1553). Perhaps she was reading John Gough Nichols's Literary remains of King Edward the Sixth. Edited from his autograph manuscripts, with historical notes and a biographical memoir (London: J.B. Nichols and Sons, 1857).
5. Thomas, Lord Seymour of Sudley, Lord High Admiral, and William Sharington, Vice-Treasurer of the Mint at Bristol. 'Clipping' the edges of coins was commonplace, but they did this on a wide scale - modern coins have ruled edges to discourge this practice. Sudley was beheaded in 1549 but Sharington was spared.
6. Divers people, that is, numbers of different people.
7. Caroline Augusta Edgcumbe, née Feilding, Lady Mt Edgcumbe (1808–1881); WHFT’s half-sister.
8. Possibly Caroline Fox (1767–1845), and Lady Elisabeth Theresa Feilding, née Fox Strangways, first m Talbot (1773–1846), WHFT’s mother.
9. ‘Tempore’, that is, ‘in the time of’.
10. Napoleon I, Emperor of France (1804–1814/1815), had been exiled to the Island of Elba on 1 March 1815 but returned to Paris on 20 March.
11. Harriot Georgiana Frampton Mundy published the The journal of Mary Frampton, from the year 1779, until the year 1846. Including various interesting and curious letters, anecdotes, &c. relating to events which occurred during that period (London: S. Low, Marston, Searle, & Rivington, 1885). [See Doc. No: 00363].
12. William Thomas Horner Fox Strangways, 4th Earl of Ilchester (1795–1865), botanist, art collector & diplomat.
13. Constance Talbot, née Mundy (1811–1880), WHFT’s wife.