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.