Laneley <1>
April 26
My dear Henry
I am very much obliged to you for the pretty little things you sent me and admire the ferns very much I cannot comprehend how the medal is done at all it surprises me very much, the folded paper is very nice it shows so plainly how it is managed. When I can send them to poor Mrs Knight I make no doubt she will be much gratified and amused by them. – I saw some very good paper (prepared) from Clifton. <2> Mr West <3> of the observatory makes it for sale he also sell some things ready done I saw a sheet of feathers I thought very neat the transparency of parts of the Quill I admired very much they were Gallini feathers & Pheasant we saw a bit of Mr Wests paper tried with a Silver Pheasants feather & it came out very well, (but those sort of things are not so wonderful as what are done with reflected light in my opinion) Jane and Johnny <4> have been toying with some dried ferns & seem to be very much entertained at all events by it. he has the whooping cough but it is Stephen <5> who seems the most ill with it & it is on his account she has not returned to Town as soon as she talked of doing. –
We have charming weather now the gentle rain we have of an evening refreshes the flowers & brings on the seeds a little now. I am raising some common annuals from Rio imported by Mrs Bowens’s son George. I am in hopes they may vary a little from the ones that are bought in the shops in this country. this climate will suit the wild things we gathered I hope for they have no names and I am curious to see what they will turn out – Mamma has a cough & is not well at all but she is getting better I think. We have Mr F & Isabella <6> here no[w] <7> with one little girl who ma[kes] more noise in the house than your three I dare say tho’ she is only four & ½ years old.
I am writing in a hurry & have no time for more pray give my love to Mrs Talbot & Ela <8> the others don’t remember me
I am your affate Coz. Mary
London April twenty nine CRM Talbot <9>
W.H.F. Talbot
Lacock Abbey
Chippenham
Notes:
1. Llanely, or Lanely, Glamorganshire: home of Lady Mary Cole and Mary Thereza Talbot.
2. Clifton, Bristol, on the Avon Gorge.
3. William West (1801–1860), landscape artist, noted for the veracity of his paintings; founder of the Clifton Observatory & Camera Obscura.
4. Jane Harriot Nicholl, née Talbot (1796–1874), and her son John Cole Nicholl (b. 1823).
5. Stephen Nicholl, son of Jane Harriet Nicholl.
6. Richard Franklen and his wife Isabella Catherine Franklen, née Talbot (1804–1874).
7. Text torn away under seal.
8. Constance Talbot, née Mundy (1811–1880), WHFT’s wife, and Ela Theresa Talbot (1835–1893), WHFT’s 1st daughter.
9. Christopher Rice Mansel Talbot (1803–1890), immensely wealthy landowner, mathematician & politician; WHFT’s Welsh cousin.