Ilfracombe, Devon.
July 22d 1836
Dr Roget presents his compliments to Mr & Mrs Talbot, <1> and will be happy to accept their obliging invitation to Lacock Abbey during the week preceding the meeting of the Bristol Association. <2> Being in Devonshire at the time they wrote to him, he did not receive their letter till this morning, it having been sent to him from London, and he was therefore unable to answer it sooner.
H. F. Talbot Esqr
Lacock Abbey
Chippenham
Notes:
1. Constance Talbot, née Mundy (1811-1880), WHFT's wife.
2. WHFT invited a number of savants to stay at Lacock Abbey before the 1836 meeting of British Association for the Advancement of Science. In addition to Peter Mark Roget, Sir David Brewster (1781-1868), Scottish scientist & journalist, Prof Charles Babbage (1792-1871), mathematician & inventor, Sir Charles Wheatstone (1802-1875), scientist, Rev William Whewell (1794-1866), Master of Trinity College, Cambridge, Professor and natural philosopher and Sir William Snow Harris (1791-1867), scientist, assembled at Lacock Abbey 16-17 August, leaving at various times for the meeting, which began 22 August.