Rothay Bank <1>
July 31st
My dear Papa
Though I have been so slow in answering it, will you receive my thanks for your most amusing letter from Furness <2> – Several such scenes of despairing tourists must have occurred since then, as we have had a good deal of rain – and last night was a regular hurricane of wind and pouring rain, of which we received the full benefit, as being just in the middle of the valley this house is exposed on all sides. It would never do for a winter residence. But do’nt [sic] think we have had nothing but bad weather – some days have been splendid, and there has not been one in which it was not quite possible to go out for a short time; – rain is still very much wanted and. the country is quite dried up, and there is no water in the streams. But this is a most pleasant state of things for walking, as in wet weather many places are impassable. We have not yet explored all the walks around, some of them very steep and rough, and requiring good mountain legs, and almost all unknown to us when we lived the other side of the valley. But they are doing all they can to spoil the country – in a few years it will be deserted by quiet people – Houses are springing up in all directions – Brown’s large hotel attracts shoals of tourists who scour the country in cars chuck full, and otherwise disturb one’s tranquillity – and they are building a great staring lodging house at the end of the dear little secluded valley of Easedale, which till now was so solitary! – it is such a pity, it makes one quite melancholy –
Mamie <3> has heard from Aunt Caroline <4>from Cowes, where they had just arrived in their steamer, but she did not know how long they might stay, as Ld Mount E. <5> had not been so well the last few days. They seem to have enjoyed cruizing among the channel fleet as they steamed along the coast, and visiting the new fortifications at Portland Isle. <6> What do you think of Bedinguet reduction of his army? – is that but a ruse to lull our suspicions and stop our preparations of defence? – It is most inconvenient to have a neighbour that one must be continually mistrusting.
Perhaps we shall hear from you tomorrow and learn when we must expect Charles. <7> You must have found an excellent pen at Furness, you wrote so beautifully, but I can never find a good one, and have tried 3 or 4 since I began this.
Do tell us how you like Thomas, <8> and whether he tries to do his best for you.
Your affectionate daughter
Rosamond
Notes:
1. Grasmere, Lake District.
2. Dalton-in-Furness.
3. Amélina Petit De Billier, ‘Mamie’, ‘Amandier’ (1798–1876), governess and later close friend of the Talbot family [See Amélina's journal].
4. Caroline Augusta Edgcumbe, née Feilding, Lady Mt Edgcumbe (1808–1881); WHFT’s half-sister.
5. Ernest Augustus Edgcumbe, Lord Valletort, 3rd Earl of Mt Edgcumbe (1797–1861), WHFT’s brother-in-law.
6. 4 miles south of Weymouth.
7. Charles Henry Talbot (1842–1916), antiquary & WHFT’s only son.
8. Thomas Wright, servant at Lacock.
9. Probably Frances Elizabeth, née Headlam (b. 1811), wife of Thomas Storey Spedding (1800–1870), of Mirehouse, man of letters.
10. Constance Talbot, née Mundy (1811–1880), WHFT’s wife.
11. Greta Bank, Cumberland, near Keswick.
12. Joseph Pocklington-Senhouse (1804–1874) of Netherhall, Maryport, Cumberland.
13. The Rev. Sir Alfred Nathaniel Holden Curzon, 4th Baron Scarsdale (1831–1916). He married Blanche (d. 1875), the second daughter of Joseph Pocklington-Senhouse in 1856.