4 Circus, <1>
Sunday –
My dear Henry
We quite understand about the Package containing 2 Cases from New York. – It is what we had been expecting from M. de Billier <2> – Please do let me have the Letter which you have received from the Ship-Agent at Liverpool, and the required explanation shall be given – On receipt of this he will state the amount of his claim for custom’s entry. Or perhaps he has already specified the amount in the letter which you hold. The freightage to Liverpool has been pre-paid as your doubtless observed in the Invoice of Messrs Acker Merrall & Condit – 21/– We will make it right – and the cases will be duly forwarded, as addressed, to 4 Circus. Yesterday the weather was as enjoyable here as you found it at Lacock – We drove to 2 Nursery gardens. and made a few small purchases of Spring things for this garden – Our hyacinths, tulips &c are in a very promising state, & we have a Ribes <3> in flower against the well. In the Park are some beautiful Almond trees in full bloom – Pretty as it is here, I am nevertheless wishful to see how the garden is looking at Lacock – and I believe Rd will be going over towards the end of the week. If I should feel tolerably energetic that morning, I will accompany her.
I hope we shall soon see the end of that odious Ashantee War. <4> All honor to Sir G Wolseley <5> for the skill with which he [illegible deletion] is bringing it to a close! – I was reading just now an amusing notice in Friday’s Times of Mr Skertchley’s adventures in Dohomey [sic] – to which he turned aside when the war prevented him from Entomologysing in Ashantee: did you read it? –<6>
The casualties of the War are most distressing – but I have long felt satisfied of Rice Nicholl’s <7> safety. a notice having been given of the Hampshire man (his namesake) – Who I wonder is the Lt Mundy, reported as killed? I must ask Harriot when I write –<8>
Your affectionate
Constance
Notes:
1. 4 the Circus, Bath; frequent summer home of Constance Talbot, now a Museum of Costume.
2. Amélina Petit De Billier, ‘Mamie’, ‘Amandier’ (1798–1876), governess and later close friend of the Talbot family [See Amélina's journal].
3. Currant, gooseberry.
4. The wars that took place at Ashantee, Western Africa (1873–1874).
5. Sir Garnet Wolseley (1833–1913).
6. J. Alfred Skertchly, Dahomey As It Is (London: Chapman and Hall, 1874). Part of which was published in The Times (London), Friday, 6 March 1874, p. 7.
7. Probably the son of Jane Harriet Nicholl, née Talbot (1796–1874).
8. Sub-Lt R Mundy was injured in the great twelve hour battle on 31 January. Harriot Georgiana Mundy, née Frampton (1806-1886), WHFT’s cousin & sister-in-law.