Penrice <1>
Sepr 18th
My dear Henry
It is an age since we have heard from you & as I know you are a famous correspondent in general I write to beg you will give us some notion where you are & how you all do, before you are off to the worlds end again. – Here we are at home enjoying ourselves as much as we can before we commence being fine ladies! We are going to the Races & then are to pay visits all over the county which we shall like very much when we are once out of our own peaceful nook I make no doubt. Jane <2> and Charlotte <3> are gone to Merthyr mawr <4> & Sir C. <5> is gone today to a meeting at Pyle <6> so now you know where we all are. We have been exploring Bacon hole <7> as it is called & found a variety of bones &cc the Asplenium marinum grows magnificently on the roof of the cave & I brought some home for Jane. Our Gardens seem to have recovered the dry season pretty well we are quite gay again. The Amaryllis lutea is in great beauty we have several large bunches of it by the house now. the Bella donna’s beat every bodys I ever saw they transport all beholders. the Guernsey lilies are coming on nicely but are not quite out yet. William’s <8> centaurea glastifolia is in flower now & some of his Dianthus’s & scabiouss [sic]. We have numbers of nice little plan[ts of]<9> different things coming on but do not know of any new ones in flower except the Linum Narbonnense (I think) which is very delicate & pretty indeed. The Cyclamens are in good health one of those from Naples, is in flower looks just like our hardy ones only the blossom is smaller. – We talk of going into Dorsetshire soon after our visiting here is over. have we any chance of meeting you there? pray send us word. – love from all We have not heard of Kit <10> since he sailed, I hope he is at Cadiz by this time. <11> Good bye
Believe me to be yours affy
Mary T. –
We have been diverting ourselves with some of my old hoards of letters. Kits & yours from school are very edifying, they sometimes are copies of your translations I believe! –
Henry
Notes:
1. Penrice Castle and Penrice House, Gower, Glamorgan, 10 mi SW of Swansea: home of Christopher Rice Mansel Talbot.
2. Jane Harriot Nicholl, née Talbot (1796–1874).
3. Charlotte Louisa 'Charry' Traherne, née Talbot (1800–1880), WHFT’s cousin.
4. Merthyr Mawr, Glamorgan, on River Ogwr.
5. Sir Christopher Cole (1770–1836), Captain, MP & naval officer.
6. 5 miles northwest of Merthyr Mawr.
7. A cave on the south coast of the Gower Peninsula, just west of Pwlldu Head, noted for its prehistoric animal and human remains.
8. William Thomas Horner Fox Strangways, 4th Earl of Ilchester (1795–1865), botanist, art collector & diplomat.
9. Written off the edge of page.
10. Christopher Rice Mansel Talbot (1803–1890), immensely wealthy landowner, mathematician & politician; WHFT’s Welsh cousin.
11. See Doc. No: 01307 and Doc. No: 01482 of September 1826.
12. Text obscured under seal, but probably Lady Elisabeth Theresa Feilding, née Fox Strangways, first m Talbot (1773–1846), WHFT’s mother. [See Doc. No: 01502, which indicates that she had been ill].