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Result number 109 of 971:   < Back     Back to results list   Next >  

Document number: 4004
Date: Sun 25 Jun 1837
Dating: Jun 1837? see note
Harold White: 25 Jan 1840
Recipient: TALBOT William Henry Fox
Author: TALBOT Constance, née Mundy
Collection: British Library, London, Manuscripts - Fox Talbot Collection
Last updated: 14th February 2012

[The dating of this letter is problematic. There are two indistinct postmarks, one of which appears to have the abbreviation JA (January) and in the other Harold White made out 1840. In Constance's hand, the Sunday and the 25 are very clear - the month appears to be the abbreviation Jan., but could just as easily be June. Assuming that she did not make a dating error, the only plausible Sunday 25 January would be 1846, but she had only one sister by then and four children, hardly chicks. Assuming that she wrote Sunday 25 June, the only plausible year is 1837. Both of her sisters were alive then and her children were two years old and three months old at the time. WHFT was also in London at the time. In the face of contradictory and unclear evidence, this date has been assumed.]

Lacock Abbey
Sunday June 25.

My dear Henry

I have written today to give my sisters <1> a commission for some children’s shoes – which they will purchase when the weather permits. And I wish you to send Nicholl <2> to their house some day before you leave Town, to receive the said shoes & to pay for them. – I took a walk yesterday to view the devastations committed by the wind, & to assure myself of everything being left as you desired till your return. Since you went, a red cedar has fallen a sacrifice to the fury of the gale & made an ugly gap at the end of the East terrace. – You may perhaps remember its position, close to Lady Elisabeth’s <3> Irish Yew. – The Masons are busily engaged in reparations of different parts of the walls, which John Humphries <4>assured me were ordered by you – There is an awkward break made by the wind in the old wall near the cascade, which if you don’t particularly wish to see it, I think had better be built up again immediately – because it makes an inviting communication between our Shrubbery & the Tan. yard – the extent of the break is about 10 or 12 feet – I hope you are very prudent in avoiding the pedestrian excursions, so long as the streets are exposed to falling tiles, slates & chimney pots. – Lady Mary <5> has fixed her journey for tomorrow, but I cannot think she will be able to go if this weather lasts – Our River began to rise again on Friday evening; & yesterday I think it was higher than I ever knew it before. – Lady Elisabeth wants particularly to know the exact state of discomfort in which you found the house, for she suspects that her directions about getting your rooms ready first had not been attended to – and she intends to find fault in the proper quarters when she knows all about it – Our chicks <6> are very well. – One of Matilda’s gums was thought sufficiently advanced for lancing yesterday & Mr. Kenrick <7> did it so well that she did not mind it at all – My cold is a great deal better. – You will see my Sisters won’t you, & Aunt Matilda <8> too? – And why not invite yourself to dine or drink tea with the former?

Your affectionate
Constance

I should like Nicholle [sic] to bring for me a bottle of Johnson’s Soothing Syrup –from the Chemists. –

H. Fox Talbot Esq
31. Sackville Street
London


Notes:

1. Laura Mundy (1805–1842); Marian Gilder, née Mundy (1806 – 14 October 1860); m. 6 August 1844 William Troward Gilder (d. 1871), Army Surgeon (ret).; WHFT’s sisters-in-law.

2. Dr John Nicholl (1797–1853), MP.

3. Lady Elisabeth Theresa Feilding, née Fox Strangways, first m Talbot (1773–1846), WHFT’s mother.

4. John Humphries, gardener at Lacock Abbey in the early 1840’s.

5. Lady Mary Lucy Cole, née Strangways, first m. Talbot (1776–1855), WHFT’s aunt.

6. Ela Theresa Talbot (25 Apr 1835 - 25 Apr 1893), WHFT's 1st daughter; Rosamond Constance Talbot (16 Mar 1837 - 7 May 1906), 'Rose'; 'Monie'; artist & WHFT's 2nd daughter; died & buried at San Remo, Italy, with a memorial at Lacock; Matilda Caroline Gilchrist-Clark, née Talbot (25 Feb 1839-1927), 'Tilly', WHFT's 3rd daughter.

7. Dr George Cranmer Kenrick, surgeon living at The Grove, Melksham.

8. Matilda Feilding (1775-1849), WHFT's 'aunt' - sister of Charles Feilding, his stepfather.

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