Margam Park ^<1>
Oct 7^th

My dear Henry

Please not to forget me when you have printed your notes & observations about the Eclipse, ^<2> which Uncle W^{m <3>} tells me you are going to do. I did not see the Eclipse at all but shall be very glad to have some account of it never the less, & I should be glad to have a line from you too! –

Here we are all busy about Rifles a grand review is to take place in the Park^<4> & nothing else is now talked of or thought about I believe – Theodore ^<5> has taken much pains with his company – having diligently studied the book of instructions &c himself. I hope they will acquit themselves properly, but not knowing anything about the matter, I do not find it a very interesting affair and am not going to remain here next week thinking my room may be of use.

We have got the Terrace finished now & there are 3 fountains before the Greenhouse which charms me – Up by the House too the garden part is looking gay, I wish you would come & see it & us –

I am your aff^ate coz
Mary

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Notes:

1. Margam Park, Glamorgan: home of Christopher Rice Mansel Talbot.

2. WHFT travelled to Vitoria-Gasteiz, a Basque community in Northern Spain, as one of many visitors who came to observe the total eclipse of the Sun on 18 July 1860. This was the first total solar eclipse to be documented by photography (although WHFT took none). Among the successful photographers were the Englishman Warren De La Rue (1815–1889), pioneer in astronomical photography, and Father Pietro Angelo Secchi (1818–1878), professor of astronomy and director of the observatory at the Roman college in Rome. Jean Bernard Léon Foucault (1819-1868) succeeded in taking three albumen negatives, which have regretably not been preserved. [See Doc. No: 08148]. WHFT's account of his observations, if submitted to the Astronomical Society, was not published.

3. William Thomas Horner Fox Strangways, 4^th Earl of Ilchester (1795–1865), botanist, art collector & diplomat.

4. On 8 October 1860, the whole of the Glamorganshire Rifle Volunteers assembled in review at Margam. As Lord Lieutenant, WHFT's cousin Christopher Rice Mansel Talbot was the host of the day. More than 450,000 people gathered to watch more than 2,000 troops in their exercises.

5. Theodore Mansel Talbot (1839–1876), WHFT’s Welsh nephew.