Paris,
Wednesday 7th June 1843
My Dear Constance
I have only time today to write a few lines, before the post goes - I was delighted this morning to receive Your letter <1> from Clifton containing so good an account of you all and with dear little Matilda's <2> enclosure. Tell her I shall write her a little letter very soon.
Pray desire Carey <3> to renovate the North gallery in the way you like best.
I have begun to teach the Calotype to the Marquis of Bassano <4> and his friends - Today we took four views of the Tuilleries [sic]. The weather was indifferent - It has been so all along; in fact I never recollect a wetter and cloudier season - The Marquis and his friends have taken for a month an isolated and lofty house that stands in the place du Carousel fronting the Tuileries - This house will soon be pulled down by the government, as it disfigures the place; in the meantime it has become our workshop.
Adieu
Your affte
Henry
Tell the children <5> I found all their kisses upon my letter when I opened it this morning -
Notes:
1. Doc. No: 04827 written from Clifton, Bristol, on the Avon Gorge.
2. Matilda Caroline Gilchrist-Clark, 'Tilly', née Talbot (1839-1927), WHFT's 3rd daughter.
3. William Carey (d. 1855), tiler and plasterer at Lacock Abbey.
4. Hugues Antoine Joseph Eugène Maret, Marquis de Bassano (1806-1889), photographic entrepreneur, Paris.
5. Ela Theresa Talbot (1835-1893), WHFT's 1st daughter; Rosamond Constance 'Monie' Talbot (1837-1906), artist & WHFT's 2nd daughter; Matilda Caroline Gilchrist-Clark, 'Tilly', née Talbot (1839-1927), WHFT's 3rd daughter; Charles Henry Talbot (1842-1916), antiquary & WHFT's only son.