Lacock Abbey,
Chippenham.
Saturday Nov. 17th
My Dear Constance
I was very glad to hear that you saw the magnificent phenomena on the night of the 13th so well – The Times has given several, and on the whole well written, accounts of the event which was not expected to be so beautiful even by the scientific world since on the last occasion when it occurred, in November 1833 nothing was seen in England on account of cloudy weather, and we had only American accounts to rely on. All the observers agree that the maximum of the display occurred about 5 minutes past 1 oclock. Since the phenomenon must have been visible to one half of the world namely the half which was moving foremost at the time in the Earth’s orbit, the total number of meteors which encountered the Earth must have been some millions and as every one [illegible deletion] of them was destroyed and burnt by the collision, the total number left remaining for another occasion must be I think somewhat sensibly diminished, so that in the lapse of ages [illegible deletion] the meteor shower will grow smaller and smaller unless some unknown cause replenishes and restores it.
Today was cloudless and very cold, it is freezing rather sharply, the frost has come on very suddenly, yesterday was quite mild. Love to all at Dabton
Your affte Henry
[envelope:]
Mrs Talbot
Dabton
Thornhill
Scotland
[annotated on recto by WHFT:]
Novr 17 66
[annotated on verso:]
Meteors in Nov. 1866