Battle House
Bromham <1>
July 7th 1830
My dear Mr Talbot –
As I hear you are now at Laycock I will no longer delay thanking you for your kind present of The Legendary Tales <2> which I found here on my return from Weymouth ten days ago. If I have appeared very negligent in not doing so sooner it is only because I knew nothing of their arrival until my return home.
They have I assure you afforded us all the greatest amusement and interest and I am quite anxious to hear that your sister Caroline <3> has made drawings of some of the most striking scenes, several of which would I think be beautiful subjects, particularly from the Magic Mirror, the Danish Legend and Rosina, and also from some of the little Legends in the presentiment.
If Lady Elisabeth <4> and your sisters are yet at Laycock pray give them my kind love. Colonel Napier <5> desires me to add his kind regards to you all. He is quite wild with eagerness and anxiety about the astonishing news from France <6> most impatient for intelligence and in short he can think and talk of nothing else.
Believe me yours very sincerely
Caroline Napier
Notes:
1. Wiltshire.
2. WHFT, Legendary Tales, in Verse and Prose (London: James Ridgway, 1830).
3. Caroline Augusta Edgcumbe, née Feilding, Lady Mt Edgcumbe (1808–1881); WHFT’s half-sister.
4. Lady Elisabeth Theresa Feilding, née Fox Strangways, first m Talbot (1773–1846), WHFT’s mother.
5. William F P Napier.
6. A reference to the July Revolution in France in 1830.