My dear Henry
Having an opportunity of sending a packet to London I have availed myself of it by writing for my Sisters <1> various letters on business touching ladies maids &c, & we thought it best to enclose them all to you to put into the twopenny post for us. There is one for Mina Mellish <2> & one for Hallam. <3> – Besides those there is a letter for Miss Ford at Bath which I hope you will get some kind friend to frank for me – & if necessary, you may keep it a day or two. But it must not go unfranked besides it is a letter on business – of private concernments & no ways amusing to Miss Ford.
The fourth packet is for Emma Lady E’s <4> maid –
I have heard twice from Lacock & have been writing to Lady Elisabeth in return. –
Many thanks for your letter received this morning & for the permission to stay another week – This lengthened stay is much more agreeable both to myself & to my Sisters – Harriot Mundy <5> has been uneasy about her little boy <6> – he kept his bed for some [illegible deletion] days & was so weak he could only sit up when propped with pillows. – Tonight is too cloudy for astronomical observation – What a pity – The picture is not yet decided about for I am waiting to see Mr Forster’s paintings. <7>
Excuse a scrawl dear Henry & believe me ever your affct
Constance
April 25.
Notes:
1. Laura Mundy (1805– 1 September 1842); Emily Mundy (1807– 5 November 1839); 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. Sister of Richard Charles Mellish (d. 1865), a clerk in the Foreign Office from 1824 to 1855.
3. Samuel Hallam.
4. Lady Elisabeth Theresa Feilding, née Fox Strangways, first m Talbot (1773–1846), WHFT’s mother.
5. Harriot Georgiana Mundy, née Frampton (1806-1886), WHFT’s cousin & sister-in-law.
6. Francis Noel Mundy (1833–1903), WHFT’s nephew.
7. Almost certainly Robert Edward Forster (b. 1811) a London artist & teacher of drawing and a regular exhibitor of portraits in the Royal Academy from 1838-1855 (he went bankrupt in 1861). He was commissioned to do portraits of Ela Theresa Talbot (25 Apr 1835 - 25 Apr 1893), WHFT's 1st daughter; and 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. See Doc. No: 03673, and Doc. No: 03667.