6 St Colme Street
February 26th 1862 –
My dear Papa,
I have received four letters, besides your engraving and a most wonderful bouquet, so that I don’t know who to thank first, especially as I have to undertake Baby’s thanks for all the good wishes addressed to him, as well as my own – He is perfectly well & happy, and merry, and also becoming very clever indeed, holding out his hands for everything bright that he sees – the other day he held out his hands to the face of the clock which is yellow, and today he nearly lifted a teaspoon out of my saucer which I left within his reach on purpose – He is also very much taken up with a coral & bells that Mr Maxwell has given him & shakes the bells for himself. You must be living in the most wonderfully mild climate at Millburn,<1> in order to have persian lilac in blossom, and the violets scent all the room – I have put them in the marble butter dish you gave me, and they look so pretty! – I am quite proud of having your first personally printed engraving – do you find it easy to manage? and is this fern leaf a new plate? Do you mean to print all your copies, or only trial ones, to see whether the plate has succeeded or not – I mean would you print those things which you mean to send to London –?
Please thank Mamie & Monie for their letters, and tell Mamie how sorry I am to hear she has been suffering so much from her face – but that I hope at the same time that she is really feeling better, as she was able to write, and that I will answer her letter soon – I will do Monie’s commission also. –
Johnnie joins with me in love & messages to everybody
& I am yr affecte daughter
Tilly –
They say Princess Alice will be married on the day originally fixed by her father, and that the whole thing will be done so quietly & privately that the Queen has not decided even whether she is to have any bridesmaids.
Notes:
1. Millburn Tower, Gogar, just west of Edinburgh; the Talbot family made it their northern home from June 1861 to November 1863. It is particularly important because WHFT conducted many of his photoglyphic engraving experiments there. The house had a rich history. Built for Sir Robert Liston (1742-1836), an 1805 design by Benjamin Latrobe for a round building was contemplated but in 1806 a small house was built to the design of William Atkinson (1773-1839), best known for Sir Walter Scott’s Abbotsford. The distinctive Gothic exterior was raised in 1815 and an additional extension built in 1821. Liston had been ambassador to the United States and maintained a warm Anglo-American relationship in the years 1796-1800. His wife, the botanist Henrietta Liston, née Marchant (1751-1828) designed a lavish American garden, sadly largely gone by the time the Talbots rented the house .