London
Southampton Row 29
April 3d 1829
My dear Henry
I am very much obliged indeed to you for your kind recollection of me & should have been delighted to have accepted your kind invitation had I been in Gloucestershire but I have been in London ever since Jany & your Letter <1> was forwarded to me from Boxwell<2> yesterday I shall not be returned home I fear before the time you mention that you remove to London but if you are at Lacock in the Summer or Autumn & will let me know I shall be delighted to come & pay you a visit as I wish very much to see your improvements as well as yourself & Lady Elisabeth <3> to whom I beg my kind regards & believe me dear Henry
Yr affete cousin
M. A. Shakespear
Henry Fox Talbot Esqr
Lacock Abbey
Chippenham
Wilts
Notes:
1. Letter not located.
2. Boxwell Court, Wotton under Edge, Gloucestershire, the home of her brother Arthur Shakespear (1789-1845).
3. Lady Elisabeth Theresa Feilding, née Fox Strangways, first m Talbot (1773–1846), WHFT’s mother.
4. Lady Mary Lucy Cole, née Strangways, first m. Talbot (1776–1855), WHFT’s aunt.
5. Granite island about 400 yards (365 metres) offshore in Mount’s Bay on the English Channel, in the western part of the county of Cornwall, England. In 1659 it was sold to Colonel John St Aubyn.