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Document number: 00639
Date: 28 Dec 1815
Postmark: 28 Dec 1815
Recipient: TALBOT William Henry Fox
Author: EDGCUMBE Caroline Augusta, née Feilding
Collection: Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre, Chippenham
Collection number: Lacock Abbey Deposit WRO 2664
Last updated: 29th January 2012

Mon chèr Henri

Il y a long tems depuis que vous m’avez écrit. Maman <1> va nous donner un livre nouveau appellé les aventures d’une famille après avoir fait naufrage. <2> nous jouons quelquefois à être dans un Canôt et que nouss [sic] sommes Vendredi et Robinson Crusoe. <3>

Aimez vous Monsieur Barns? [sic] <4> Avez vous été sur la glace?

Nous avons des souliers nouveaux pourpres et verts pour apprendre à danser avec nôtre nouvelle Maîtresse de la danse qui s’appelle Miss Rae. Maman va bientôt à Middleton.

Je suis votre Sœur
très affectionnée
Caroline A. Feilding.

London
Decr twenty eight 1815
Hy Fox Talbot Esqr
Revd Mr Barnes
Castleford
Ferrybridge –
Auckland


Translation:

My dear Henry

It has been a long time since you have written to me. Mama is going to give us a new book called the adventures of a family after being shipwrecked. we sometimes play at being in a Canoe and that we are Man Friday and Robinson Crusoe.

Do you like Mr Barns? [sic] Have you been on the ice?

We have new purple and green shoes to learn to dance with our new dance mistress who is called Miss Rae. Mama is going to Middleton soon.

I am your very affectionate Sister
Caroline A. Feilding.

London Decr twenty eight 1815
Hy Fox Talbot Esqr
Mr Barnes
Castleford
Ferrybridge –
Auckland


Notes:

1. Lady Elisabeth Theresa Feilding, née Fox Strangways, first m Talbot (1773–1846), WHFT’s mother.

2. Probably Johann David Wyss (1743–1818), The Family Robinson Crusoe, or, Journal of a father shipwrecked, with his wife and children, on an uninhabited island (London: M.J. Godwin, 1814).

3. Daniel Defoe (1660–1731), Robinson Crusoe.

4. Rev Theophilus Barnes (1774 –1855), of Castleford.