Bath
20th November
My dear Papa,
Mama <1> was lucky to have so bright a day to come over, and the garden and the Chrysanthemums were looking so brillant [sic] when she arrived that she was quite delighted. I think (if you are not gone to London previously) that you may very likely to have the pleasure of my company on Wednesday, as I ought to go over about some business connected with the poultry show next day. If I come I will bring you some bread, as I hear that the carrier somehow succeeds in making it dry up on the road, although he receives it here fresh out of the oven! We wished so much that you had been here yesterday, when we went to see the celebrated conjuror Dr Lynn & took Connie, <2> to enlarge her ideas. It was most interesting. The purely conjuring part he performed to perfection; he it was impossible to see where the things came from & vanished to, although we were quite close to him; but the crowning marvel was his guessing words (names) written on slips of paper by several people in the audience. Several clergymen & others, evidently quite genuine, mounted the platform, & one grey-headed clec gentleman was extremely astonished at his guessing, with very little hesitation, the name which he had written: viz – David in Hebrew. There was the box trick also: – a man tied up in two sacks, one fastened over his head and the other under his feet, & so left, helpless, being on the top of 3 trunks, one within the other, and all strongly corded; was after a few minutes discovered in the inside of the innermost box, the cords being still round them, in the same condition. The room was very crowded, as he only gave two performances here. Today he is at Southampton, and on Monday resumes at the Egyptian Hall, where you ought to go and see him, when you are in London. We have heard nothing of the Llewelyns, <3> so I should think they were not coming this year.
I am so sorry I forgot your elastic bands, but you should have sent me a reminding message.
Everybody sends their love.
Your most affectionate daughter
Rosamond
P.S.
Helen & the Kitchen maid have just arrived and report that they were upset in the Coburg close to Corsham station. Poor Helen has her face bruised but is not seriously hurt. She says John escaped uninjured, but she can give no clear account of the state of the horse and Coburg. I think John was too weak to drive & should not have attempted it, the horse slipped & he could not keep it up.
Notes:
1. Constance Talbot, née Mundy (1811–1880), WHFT’s wife.
2. Constance Stewart, née Gilchrist-Clark (b. 1863), ‘Connie’, WHFT’s Scottish granddaughter.
3. John Dillwyn Llewelyn (1810-1882), Welsh photographer, JP & High Sheriff; and his wife, Emma Thomasina Llewelyn, née Talbot (1806–1881), photographer, WHFT’s Welsh cousin.