Circus – <1>
Saturday
February 28th
My dear Henry
I had only just closed my parcel to you per Carrier when Rd <2> brought in the Verdict, as per Telegraph – but of course you will have obtained it for yourself at Lacock Post office. The Jury shewed themselves to be “good men and true” by finding him guilty on all the Counts – We will hope that 14 years penal servitude may be a sufficiently strong punishment to deter all future, would-be, Claimants! but might it not have been surer, for the term of his mature life? –
I have paid Pickering – but only after much hesitation – for he declined to make any discount on Charles’ <3> Researches. – He said it was a second hand Book. & that they had procured it for you on a full understanding that 14/ would be the price – without abatement. and that he had written you a note to that effect. – The price they themselves had paid was 13/– without reckoning the cost of carriage. So having tendered handed them the bill, & allowed them to affix the receipt, before I became aware of the discrepancy between their charge and your own calculation, I scarcely felt justified in with-holding the money, especially as I wished then and there to pay for my own book – I considered it to be a misunderstanding: – and even had you pressed them to take back the book, they could scacely [sic] have done so – I hope you will write me word that you are satisfied. – I myself noticed on the bill that the 14/ were carried out to the margin of the Paper Colenso <4> 12/ not so. –
Your affectionate
Constance.
Rd sends you the Bath Newspaper 2d edition with the ‘Verdict and the Sentence <5>’ –
Mrs & Miss Roach <6> called here yesterday – So Charles got his question answered –
Notes:
1. 4 the Circus, Bath; frequent summer home of Constance Talbot, now a Museum of Costume.
2. Richard, a servant.
3. Charles Henry Talbot (1842–1916), antiquary & WHFT’s only son.
4. John William Colenso (1814–1883), Lectures on the Pentateuch and the Moabite stone (London: Longmans, Green, 1873). [See Doc. No: 03204].
5. Probably relating to ‘The Tichborne Trial. The charge of the Lord Chief Justice, verdict and sentence’, printed in The Times (London) (1874).
6. Mary Roach (b. 1832) and probably one of the five daughters of Edwin Osmond Roach (1828-1876), Irish-born Vicar of St Cyriac's, Lacock, 1870-1876; Asst Provincial Grand Chaplain, Freemason.