St Leonards <1>
May 11th
My dear Henry
I shall be quite willing to bestow my utmost care & attention upon dear Bimbo <2> if Caroline <3> likes to send him to Lacock – and if he is ready to go soon you might take charge of him on the journey. – Caroline will of course decide whether she has sufficient confidence in Mrs Palmers judgment to trust him out of her sight – Pray assure her that any directions she may give one about him shall be scrupulously attended to – & that au reste <4> will promise not to treat him harshly – but will watch him with 3 times as much care as I do my own children. – Does Lady Elisabeth <5> approve of the plans? I know it is a heavy charge especially with so delicate a child as Bimbo is – but I would do anything for Caroline’s sake – and I think with you that country air is more likely than anything to keep him in health – I suppose it would be of no use for me to come through to London for the purpose of picking him up – or (to express myself more correctly) to enable our 2 carriages to travel together.
I am going to speak to Mr Edlin about the practicability of the Cuckfield road which you mentioned yesterday – and if he discourages me from attempting it then I will go the usual road to Seven Oaks – & enquire there whether I can travel easily to Guildford by the road you mention. – I certainly will not follow the old road unless I am obliged – & instead of coming into it again even at Newbury I should prefer going through Andover & Devizes –
I have bought some beautiful new colours for painting the chry crystals, & I hope I shall prosper better with them when I am established at Lacock.
I hope you will recollect to send orders to the Newspaper office about stopping the Globe <6>
I have some idea that I said in one of my letters that my Sisters <7> would come to Lacock on the 22nd I meant that they would leave St Leonards on the 21st & be at Lacock on Tuesday 29th Do you know of a good manservant for them? – Their present footman behaved so impertinently this morning that they were obliged to give him warning at once & tell him he might consider himself at liberty on this day month. His only answer was – “I am very glad of it ma’am” – I am quite vexed that they should have been served by such unworthy servants for the last nine months
What a change there is again in the weather after those 2 or 3 very warm days! The sun is so bright but the air is so exceedingly cold that we are quite starved. –
We have been out of doors a long time to day visiting a little church in a wood & gathering flowers with the children. – The latter were immensely happy & sang to their Aunts & me all the way in the carriage. –
Your very affecte
Constance
H.F. Talbot Esqre
31. Sackville Street
London
Notes:
1. Sussex, west of Hastings
2. William Henry Edgcumbe, ‘Val’, 4th Earl Mt Edgcumbe (1832–1917), JP & Ld Steward of the Royal Household; WHFT’s nephew ‘Bimbo’.
3. Caroline Augusta Edgcumbe, née Feilding, Lady Mt Edgcumbe (1808–1881); WHFT’s half-sister.
4. As for the rest.
5. Lady Elisabeth Theresa Feilding, née Fox Strangways, first m Talbot (1773–1846), WHFT’s mother.
6. The Globe (London).
7. 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.