Lacock Abbey,
Chippenham.
Wedny Oct. 28 1868
My Dear Charles
There is a letter come for you with the Melksham <1> postmark crest a lion’s head, motto: Deo duce confido. <2> I have not forwarded it because your directions were to forward none after Tuesdays post.
I have sent the quinces to your aunt <3> in a small hamper by luggage train. I received your letter from London, and one from you at Markeaton. <4> You will not be much surprised to hear that your mother <5> has decided to spend the winter at Venice, where she finds herself very comfortable and the landlord is laying down carpets in the rooms: and they are beginning fires, about a month later than us at Lacock. They are already congratulating themselves on this determination, because a renewed violent storm has destroyed the railway between Rovigo and Ferrara and passengers going to Bologna have to pass 4 hours in a diligence, which would not suit your mother at all.
They were expecting the Abbotts <6> of Edinburgh to come to Venice this week or next. These latter have had an eventful journey full of troubles from Lucerne into Italy – Luckily they seem able to rough it.
I have 2 long letters to show you when you return, 1 from Monie <7> and the other from Mlle Amélina <8> The Russian granddukes 3 sons and a daughter of the present Emperor <9> have been creating a great sensation at our hotel at Venice and indeed throughout the City they spent lots of money purchasing all sorts of things and of course speedily became uncommonly popular. One of them the Grand Duke Alexis <10> was shipwrecked last month on the coast of Jutland – Their mother the Empress <11> had engaged a villa on the lake of Como but the Lake swollen by the heavy rains rose and entered the lower floor; when the waters reached the second floor the Empress fled to Milan: The King of Italy, Victor Emmanuel <12> was so polite and empressé <13> that he went thro’ all those floods from Florence where he was staying to greet the Empress on her entry into his dominions – Their interview occurred at 1 in the morning, I don’t know why – Your friend Canon Jackson’s <14> account of the discovery of the beads and cross, <15> and the hanging thorn on the pilaster, is marvellous! Were people so benighted in 1790 as not to value such relics more highly?
Your affte
Father
Notes:
1. Melksham, Wiltshire: market town near Lacock, 2 miles S.
2. God my guide I trust.
3. Harriot Georgiana Mundy, née Frampton (1806-1886), WHFT’s cousin & sister-in-law. [See Doc. No: 09432].
4. Markeaton Hall, Derbyshire, NW of Derby: home of the Mundy family.
5. Constance Talbot, née Mundy (1811–1880), WHFT’s wife.
6. Francis Abbott, Secretary of General Post Office, Edinburgh, and his wife, Frances Jane, née Parker.
7. Rosamond Constance ‘Monie’ Talbot (1837–1906), artist & WHFT’s 2nd daughter.
8. Amélina Petit De Billier, ‘Mamie’, ‘Amandier’ (1798–1876), governess and later close friend of the Talbot family [See Amélina's journal].
9. Alexander Nicholaievich Romanov, Emperor Alexander II (1818–1881).
10. Alexis Alexandrovich (1850–1908), 4th son of Alexander II.
11. Empress Maria Alexandrovna, Princess of Hesse-Darmstadt (1824–1880).
12. Victor Emanuel II (1820–1878), the last King of Piedmont-Sardinia, 1849–1861, and the first King of united Italy, 1861–1878.
13. In haste; eager.
14. John Edward Jackson (1805–1891), antiquary, hon canon of Bristol, 1855.
15. See Doc. No: 09432.