Abbotsbury <1>
Feby 7th
My dear Henry
We are going to London instead of Penrice! <2> and grieve to miss paying you a visit at Laycock it is a great disappointment to us all I assure you but it can’t be helped. Sir Chrisr <3> is now gone up to town to get us a house and we expect to hear from him today. Jane <4> will be benefitted [sic] by this plan for she does not think of going into Glamorganshire till July! I begged Mamma <5> to let me answer your note so now I must send you her message.
The tower at Melbury <6> was built in Edward 4ths <7> reign so the house was probably meant by the "faire towre" in Henry 8ths <8> – the name of the hill where the stone came from is Hamdon hill. Wadham college was built of the same stone sent up to Oxford by Sir Nicholas Wadham’s <9> team. Uncle Harry <10> wishes there was as good stone there now! – We are not surprised that people were of your opinion [about?] <11> St Michael’s chair, in former days! I should like to see the old book you talk of. I like the etymology of Market Jew very much I shall send Sir Chrisr word of it & see what he says to it.
Nothing can be more delightful than the weather it is like Summer & the Sky larks sing every morning when I go down to the beach to breathe the fresh air in the morning before breakfast what a change it will be to go from hence to London! – all send their kind love. Kit <12> was at Milan when we heard last. –
Your affte coz Mary
Henry Talbot Esqre
Laycock Abbey
Notes:
1. Abbotsbury, Dorset: home of William Thomas Horner Fox Strangways.
2. Penrice Castle and Penrice House, Gower, Glamorgan, 10 mi SW of Swansea: home of Christopher Rice Mansel Talbot.
3. Sir Christopher Cole (1770–1836), Captain, MP & naval officer.
4. Jane Harriot Nicholl, née Talbot (1796–1874).
5. Lady Mary Lucy Cole, née Strangways, first m. Talbot (1776–1855), WHFT’s aunt.
6. Melbury, Dorset: one of the Fox Strangways family homes; WHFT was born there.
7. Edward IV (1442–1483), King of England.
8. Henry VIII (1491–1547), King of England and Ireland.
9. Nicholas Wadham (1532–1609).
10. Henry Stephen Fox Strangways, 3rd Earl of Ilchester (1787–1858).
11. Text obscured under seal.
12. Christopher Rice Mansel Talbot (1803–1890), immensely wealthy landowner, mathematician & politician; WHFT’s Welsh cousin.