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Document number: 3232
Date: Sat 26 Mar 1836
Dating: 1836?
Watermark: 1834
Recipient: TALBOT Constance, née Mundy
Author: TALBOT William Henry Fox
Collection: British Library, London, Manuscripts - Fox Talbot Collection
Collection number historic: LA(H)36-3
Last updated: 16th November 2016

Lacock
Saturday 26th March

My Dear Constance

I am sure you must be a great comfort to your sisters <1> and I daresay Ela <2> contributes a little to occupy their thoughts – Do not you think they are glad now, that we did not send and fetch her away? I am delighted to hear that the ball I gave turned out so well & proved so good a dancing ball, when she is tired of it put it away till she has forgotten it & then it will be as good as new to her again.

The Pyrus Japonica on the south front is in beautiful flower, & the fruittree [sic] beneath the dining room window is expanding – It is very growing weather, continual showers & not cold. The birds are beginning to sing very merrily, for in truth they were tired of the long winter. I sent Mrs Moore <3> a nosegay, but she was gone to Bath therefore I am afraid my present will wither – Harriet <4> has applied to me for an advance of wages, she says it was promised to her some time ago.

I have not received any later accounts from Nice. I think they <5> cannot delay setting out much longer – I have had the honor of 2 visits from Mr Paley, <6> the subjects of our conversation were of course the poor, pauperism & the poor laws, much the same as we usually discourse of. I am going to apply to the manufacturer at Halifax to receive a family of the name of Mountjoy, but I am afraid their application comes too late. They would not go when they were invited.

I will now give you a list of your seeds that are coming up in the Greenhouse.

Silene picta Lupinus rivularis
Silene nutans Gilia bicolor
Silene Armeria Gilia achillifolia
Geranium from Geneva Œnothera Lindleyana
White Everlasting from Geneva Malope
Yellow Everlasting Escholtzia
Phacelia tanacetifolia Collinsia grandiflora

In the garden we have Erythroniums in flower & double Daffodils, very fine ones, besides what I mentioned before. There are plenty of Wood Anemonies [sic] and Primroses in the shrubbery & all the bushes are coming out in leaf, daily advancing, the weather being warm enough tho’ very stormy and changeable.

Yours afftly
Henry

Mrs Talbot
Post Office
Southampton


Notes:

1. 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.

2. Ela Theresa Talbot (1835–1893), WHFT’s 1st daughter.

3. Elizabeth (Bessie) Moore, née Dyke (1783–1865), wife of the poet Thomas Moore.

4. Housemaid.

5. Rear Admiral Charles Feilding (1780–1837), Royal Navy; WHFT’s step-father and Lady Elisabeth Theresa Feilding, née Fox Strangways, first m Talbot (1773–1846), WHFT’s mother.

6. Rev James Paley (1790–1863), Vicar at Lacock.

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