Penrice <1>
Decr 31
My dear Henry
I did not know where to direct to you before I heard from Theresa <2> that Mr Feilding & Horatia <3> were to return to Laycock to meet you, or I should not have delayed sending our hearty congratulations on your marriage with such an amiable person as I have heard my new cousin is, & I beg you will tell her that I am anxious to become acquainted with one who I am sure will brighten your existence and add to the happiness of all your relations and friends. – On Saturday we received a box containing Wedding Cake for which we are very much obliged, it is very good & we have decided upon putting it in our cupboard to keep it safe, untill Mamma’s <4> piece is consumed! –
Did you feel the tremendous shock of an Earth quake on Sunday morning between eight & nine? it seemed as if the Chimnies had fallen down and then a great shake in the room which made the China rattle a second shock followed immediately and there was a great stillness in the air, but the Sea roared as if there had been a storm. people who were out of doors felt nothing & heard nothing but in all the Cottages about it was felt very violently. I have heard that it was felt at Swansea & I make no doubt we shall hear of it from many other places, no mischief has been done even to the old Castle which surprizes me, it was an awful sound tho’ not loud, more deep I should say. –
Pray give my love to Horatia & tell her she ought to have written me a line, but I suppose she was too happy at Melbury. <5> –
I am your affate coz
Mary
W. H. Fox Talbot Esqre M. P.
Laycock Abbey
Chippenham
Wilts
Notes:
1. Penrice Castle and Penrice House, Gower, Glamorgan, 10 mi SW of Swansea: home of Christopher Rice Mansel Talbot.
2. Possibly Theresa Anna Maria Digby, née Fox Strangways (1814–1874), WHFT’s cousin.
3. Rear Admiral Charles Feilding (1780–1837), Royal Navy; WHFT’s step-father, and Henrietta Horatia Maria Gaisford, née Feilding (1810–1851), WHFT’s half-sister.
4. Lady Mary Lucy Cole, née Strangways, first m. Talbot (1776–1855), WHFT’s aunt.
5. Melbury, Dorset: one of the Fox Strangways family homes; WHFT was born there.
6. Charlotte Louisa 'Charry' Traherne, née Talbot (1800–1880), WHFT’s cousin, and Isabella Catherine Franklen, née Talbot (1804–1874).