Lacock Abbey
Tuesday October 22d
My dear Henry
In vain I stirred the fire – fed it with logs & raised an inviting blaze to cheer my expected relations kindred – they did not arrive & at ½ past eleven I went to bed – Today arrived a letter from Horatia <1> explanatory – & holding out hopes of my seeing them tomorrow – It seems that Lady Elisabeth <2> had a cold yesterday & was unfit to travel, though she was so bent upon coming that she only gave it put up on Caroline’s <3> earnest entreaty – She expected it to pass off quickly however for the plan when Horatia wrote, was – to leave Mt Edgcumbe <4> today & sleep at Exeter and reach Lacock tomorrow – The only act of imprudence that could be recollected, was a sail on Friday in the Ganymede when Lady Elisabeth complained of feeling cold – but Horatia thought the interval between that & Monday too long for a cold to have lain dormant –
The Damers are engaged to Tottenham on the 28th & therefore will not be here before the 29th at soonest & probably not till the end of that week –
I had rather an indifferent account of Noel <5> today from my Brother <6> – inasmuch as the cough, though not very severe, has brought a return of some of the old annoyances. They have also thought it necessary to keep him in the house – more than my Brother seems to approve – as he thinks the loss of air & exercise has hurt him as much as anything.
They have had a house full of company – the Belmores & Lady Emily Moreton<7> – having offered themselves for the same day – & they invited neighbours to meet them –
Your affectionate
Constance
Notes:
1. Henrietta Horatia Maria Gaisford, née Feilding (1810–1851), WHFT’s half-sister.
2. Lady Elisabeth Theresa Feilding, née Fox Strangways, first m Talbot (1773–1846), WHFT’s mother.
3. Caroline Augusta Edgcumbe, née Feilding, Lady Mt Edgcumbe (1808–1881); WHFT’s half-sister.
4. Mt Edgecumbe, near Plymouth: seat of the Earl of Mt Edgcumbe.
5. Francis Noel Mundy (1833–1903), WHFT’s nephew.
6. William Mundy (1801-1877), politician, WHFT’s brother-in-law.
7. Armar Lowry-Corry, 3rd Earl Belmore (1801-1845) and his wife, Emily Louise, née Shepherd (1814-1904); Lady Emily Dundas, née Moreton (d. 1900).