Athm <1> June 7th Tuesday
My Dear Constance
I had a long talk with the Bishop <2> this morning. Nothing could be kinder than he was. He quite agreed with me about keeping Mr Roach <3> and said he would immediately write a letter to the Vicar <4> advising him strongly so to do, but he said he had no compulsory power in case his advice was disregarded. He said he would give the Vicar two years leave of absence if wished for, which would give him time to find another living or a foreign chaplaincy. Mr Mansel Talbot <5> is out of Town, and therefore as I can do nothing further that I know of, I shall return home on Thursday. I called on Harriet today & had a long chat with her and your brother– She remains as indignant as ever. <6> She talks of coming to Lacock, end of July in her way to Markeaton. <7> I have left the locket at Hunt and Roskells where it was purchased, and your opera glass at Dixey’s in Bond Street and have order’d a new Card plate from Bubb in Bond Street. <8>
Leicester Square is truly in a miserable condition. The equestrian statue is unhorsed. The riderless horse has a great hole in his back, the statue lies in ruins at his feet. The public enters as they please thro’ wide gaps in the railings. <9> Weather is warm and fine.
Your affte
I hope you got a letter from me by the 2d post today.
Notes:
1. The Athenaeum Club, Pall Mall; WHFT's club.
2. Charles John Ellicott (1819-1905), Lord Bishop of Gloucester & Bristol.
3. Edwin Osmond Roach (1828-1876), Irish-born Vicar of St Cyriac's, Lacock, 1870-1876; Asst Provincial Grand Chaplain, Freemason.
4. Rev Edward Powell Nicholl (1831-1902), Vicar of Lacock from 1864 until his resignation in 1870; photographer.
5. Christopher Rice Mansel Talbot, 'Kit' (1803-1890), immensely wealthy landowner, mathematician & politician; WHFT's Welsh cousin.
6. Harriot Georgiana Mundy, née Frampton (1806-1886); WHFT's cousin; and her husband, William Mundy (1801-1877), politician, WHFT's brother-in-law. Perhaps she was still upset about dealings with potential publishers.
7. Markeaton Hall, Derbyshire, the seat of the Mundy family.
8. Hunt & Roskell (late Storr & Mortimer), Jewelers, Goldsmiths, and Silversmiths to her Majesty, 153 New Bond St.; George Dixey, Library, 167 New Bond St.; William Dixey, Optician, 241 Oxford St.
9. WHFT's concern was possibly triggered by the article addressing "Intelligent Foreigners", which worried about the acre and a half of Leicester Square, and its descent into "a state of vile disfigurement." Times, 1 June 1870, p. 9. An elegant square had been promised at this site since at least 1737. The statue of George I came originally from the Duke of Chandos house at Canons and was erected in 1748. By the middle of the 19th c., the statue was heavily vandalised and the property was divided into at least a dozen plots owned by various branches of the Tulk family. An 1869 bill to spend £50,000 of public funds to buy the area created a tremendous outcry and was withdrawn. In 1872, the remains of the statue were sold for scrap for £16. In 1874, Albert Grant (1830–1899), known as Baron Grant and an MP, generously offered to buy the square for the benefit of the public and it was rapidly converted to the elegant square long promised. His gesture came just in time, for by 1879 he was bankrupt.