Penrice <1>
Wednesday
My dear Henry
I send you some seed of the beautiful blue Gromwell <2> you wished for I hope it will succeed, but a plant or two would be the best I think as it bears moving very well. it is just coming into flower in Nicholastone <3> wood now and is brilliant. – Mamma <4> desires me to say she has heard from Mary Anne Shakespear <5> lately & she hopes you will accept the Trusteeship <6> as she thinks her likely to want a friend who will do what is right for her. we know nothing of her brother in law, or Mr Thackeray’s <7> brother in law, but Arthur <8> is a bad adviser & not as kind as a brother should be to a Sister we know. –
Jane <9> and her little folks came here yesterday all well, looking blooming and I hope we shall fatten them out famously whilst they are here. – Pray send me word whether you think Almonds will come up quicker for being soaked in hot water? did you put fresh hot water to your seeds every day? I am half inclined to take up some of my newly sowed seeds and try your experiment! I hope you got the list of my flowers in blow, which I had given Sir C. to frank <10> before I received your note telling me that the green leaves drove you to London, or perhaps I should not have sent it. how do I know you like to hear even about the real beau monde <11> in the horrid dirty smoky false one you are now inhabiting! if you like to hear what passes in our quiet corner of the world I shall find find time to give you a line now & then & I shall be very glad to hear how you all do after your journey so pray write to us. – Have you got the Nepeta nepetifolia? it is always in blow here and looks so gay, tho’ not curious at all. We have the Ornithogalum excapum you sent in blow now and a very pretty Spirea which takes kindly to our soil, I do not know its name but the green leaves look something like a currant tree & the blossom like May only more delicate. I am astonished at the number of tender things which have escaped the winter & the number of larkspurs &cc that are coming up (being self sown) in those beds Mamma would not permit any one to weed during her absence. There are a whole row of dogs tooth violets coming up between the stones on the window seat of the Green house where some were left to dry in the sun one year. I wonder if they will find earth enough to let them ever grow big & blow. – I want to know what sort of a plant a Pascalia is, we had one sent us the other day from a lady who lives at Llandough <12> & I never heard the name before, Mamma could not remember any such name; I count my chickens the minute they are hatched if not before, & I do expect all the seeds I have sown will make the garden so gay this year that I am quite in an extasy at the idea. rows of seeds are up now, I pay them all a visit every day & if they do die it will be of kindness certainly. I am considered to be rather crazy so don’t be surprised at my comical letter I have been so long from home, I must unbend as Sir C. says! –
your affate Coz
Mary
W: H: Fox Talbot Esqre
31 Sackville Street <13>
Notes:
1. Penrice Castle and Penrice House, Gower, Glamorgan, 10 mi SW of Swansea: home of Christopher Rice Mansel Talbot.
2. Lithospermum purpureo-cæruleum.
3. Nicholaston, 2 miles southeast of Penrice Castle.
4. Lady Mary Lucy Cole, née Strangways, first m. Talbot (1776–1855), WHFT’s aunt.
5. Mary Anne Thackeray, née Shakespear (1793–1850).
6. See of her marriage-settlement. [See Doc. No: 01818].
7. Francis Thackeray (1793–1842), author.
8. Arthur Shakespear (1789–1845).
9. Jane Harriot Nicholl, née Talbot (1796–1874).
10. Sir Christopher Cole (1770–1836), Captain, MP & naval officer. As an MP, Cole had franking privileges and was entitled to free postage. Members commonly gave signed covers or envelopes to friends. At the time, the recipient paid for postage (to ensure that the letter was delivered). This arrangement was withdrawn in January 1840 with the introduction of the Penny Post, which instituted uniform costs and pre-paid stamps.
11. Literally ‘Beautiful world’ – but a pun on the conventional meaning ‘fashionable society’.
12. Near Cowbridge, Glamorganshire.
13. 31 Sackville Street, London residence of the Feildings, often used as a London base by WHFT.