Bath
Monday April 5.
My dear Henry
Thank you for your two letters. <1> I hope you have had a bright pleasant day at Lacock notwithstanding the somewhat rough wind and occasional bad storms. Our little garden already looks much refreshed by the showers of yesterday & today. Ela <2> has taken back to Pickering <3> the 2d vol of ‘Records of the Past’. <4> – which and they undertake to correct their error by procuring by the 2d edition of the first volume. She paid Lord Shelburne’s life <5>10/– and has given the receipt into Monie’s <6> charge.
I hope Mr Ellacombe’s <7> present of Pelargonium from Asia Minor will florish at Lacock: but I do not infer from your notice of it that it possess much beauty I dare say you have written to tell him that you received it safely, & without delay. When he left it here with his card, the Servant told him that you had just started for Lacock, and he then desired it might be given to me, remarking that I should know what to do with it – I thought it so lucky that it came in time for the Carrier.
The enclosed letter by this morning’s post.-<8>
We have no news of Charles -<9>
Your affectionate
Constance
[envelope:]
H. F. Talbot Esqre
Lacock Abbey
Chippenham
Notes:
1. See Doc. No: 04393, and Doc. No: 04402.
2. Ela Theresa Talbot (1835–1893), WHFT’s 1st daughter.
3. William Pickering (1796–1854), publisher and bookseller.
4. Records of the Past being English Translations of the Assyrian and Egyptian Monuments (London: Samuel Bagster & Sons).
5. Edmond George Petty-Fitzmaurice, 1st Baron (1846–1935), Life of William, Earl of Shelburne, afterwards first Marquess of Lansdowne. With extracts from his papers and correspondence (London: Macmillan and Co., 1875). [See Doc. No: 04402].
6. Rosamond Constance ‘Monie’ Talbot (1837–1906), artist & WHFT’s 2nd daughter.
7. Henry Nicholson Ellacombe (1822–1916), clergyman, Honorary Canon of Bristol, Vicar of Bitton; gardener & author.
8. Enclosure not located.
9. Charles Henry Talbot (1842–1916), antiquary & WHFT’s only son.