Lacock Abbey
Monday
My dear Henry
Mr Feilding <1> bids me say that your letters are beyond all price to him, and that he would write and tell you so himself were he in spirits to do so. – But at present he feels low and miserable and quite unequal to making any exertion. –
He got some sleep last night, which is at any rate a g decided improvement, and therefore I should hope he feels more comfortable today, but as he does not much like receiving visitors, I know very little about him. – Horatia <2> is with him a good deal, and at other times he seems tired, and prefers being alone. –
I hope this lovely weather extends as far as London. – I have been out enjoying the sunshine a long time today, and Mlle Amélina <3> and I have been very busily employed, hoeing up weeds under the windows of the east front. – We found many fragments of Nuns bones among the stones & rubbish, which rather horrified Mlle Amélina – & made her almost inclined to relinquish the occupation. – I revisited the Seeds & found many of them coming up, among the rest, was the Silene Nutans from Unterseen, which immediately recalled to my mind the Castle of Unspunnen, <4> & that lovely green bank on which we sat down to rest our wearied limbs the day after our expedition to the Wengern Alp. – Do you remember that lovely evening when we took a tête-à-tête walk, and how tired we were, so tired that we could scarcely crawl home again? –
Are you thinking of coming back to Lacock? – your fortnight will expire on Friday, but I hardly expect to see you so soon as that, especially as the House of Commons appears interesting. – Have you looked at any houses yet? – I suppose you are aware that Mr Feilding’s idea of going abroad is become almost a certainty, & that consequently the house in Sackville <5> [sic] will soon have to be set in order for letting. –
Yr affectionate
Constance
Notes:
1. Rear Admiral Charles Feilding (1780–1837), Royal Navy; WHFT’s step-father.
2. Henrietta Horatia Maria Gaisford, née Feilding (1810–1851), WHFT’s half-sister.
3. Amélina Petit De Billier, ‘Mamie’, ‘Amandier’ (1798–1876), governess and later close friend of the Talbot family [See Amélina's journal].
4. The ruin of Unspunnen, built in the 12th century, is nestled on a hillside to the southwest of Interlaken.
5. 31 Sackville Street, London residence of the Feildings, often used as a London base by WHFT.