Newcastle
Sunday Aug. 19th
My Dear Constance
I approve very much of your visit to Markeaton, <1> tho’ I am sorry that the Buxton scheme so well planned should not have succeeded, and that you have had so little of Caroline’s <2> society & the children seen so little of their cousin – I think the visit to the Lakes must be deferred till next year, as you are now gone so much further off; and the more so since I have found that the inns are greatly crowded and abound in discomfort; at least I have not been able to find out which are the comfortable ones, which a family ought to go to: certainly not the Royal Hotel at Manchester, where a waiter thinks he confers a favor upon you if he makes you an answer. Another reason is that next year the Railroad will be finished from London to Lancaster so that you may go there in one day, and there you are only 11 miles from Westmoreland. I propose therefore that you should return to Malvern, <3> & stay there as long as you think desirable.
I have also received a letter from Mr Awdry <4> resigning his situation on account of the infirmities of age. This makes me think it likely I shall want to be at home this autumn.
My love to Harriet <5> & your brother – I should write more, only I have a steel pen which is a sorrow to me. I have changed the newspaper address to Markeaton – If you like the Malvern scheme, write at the proper time to secure rooms, & send a line to Messrs Jones & Yarrell, Bury St St James’s, to change the address of my newspaper.
Your affte
Henry
Notes:
1. Markeaton Hall, Derbyshire, NW of Derby: home of the Mundy family.
2. Caroline Augusta Edgcumbe, née Feilding, Lady Mt Edgcumbe (1808–1881); WHFT’s half-sister.
3. Malvern, or Great Malvern, 9 mi SW of Worcestershire.
4. William Henry Awdry (1778–1847), solicitor, Chippenham. [See Doc. No: 03715].
5. Harriot Georgiana Mundy, née Frampton (1806-1886), WHFT’s cousin & sister-in-law, and her husband, William Mundy (1801-1877), politician, WHFT’s brother-in-law.