Penrice: ^<1>
September 26^th 1815.

My Dear Mamma,

We were surprized to hear that you were at Bowood, ^<2> for you said that Car. & Hor. ^<3> had laid in at Barming ^<4> a sufficient stock of roses to last them until they went to Burley. ^<5> Are you going there, when you leave Bowood? – What very scanty answers you send to my long letters! ^<6> I must continue my journal, to entice you to write a long answer, as a reward for it. So, you must know, that on Tuesday last, Sir C. Aunt Mary, Mary & Jane, ^<7> left Penrice to pay a visit to M^r Grant at the Knoll, intending to go thence up Neath Valley, ^<8> to see the Lions. And as I wished exceedingly to be of the party, but was not invited to the Knoll; it was settled, that I was to join them at the Lamb & Flag Inn, ^<9> between Aberpergwm & Pont Nedd Vechan, which places if you don’t know, pray look in the Map. Therefore on Thursday Morning I rode to Swansea on Kit’s ^<10> poney, & there bought a new Hat, & took the letters on in my pocket. I was too tired to ride any further, so took a chaise, & got to Neath with the hour: – & thence to the Lamb & Flag; where I found they had arrived from the Knoll before me.^<11> In the Ev^g we took a little walk; made Ducks & Drakes in the river Neath, & followed the canal up to its head, where we seemed like Bruce at the source of the Nile. ^<12> – Next Morning early, we were to set out on our expedition, but, alas! the sky was overcast, & anon the rain began to pour in torrents. – The whole party bore this disappointment with chearfulness , & in reward for our patience & philosophy, about ten it began to clear up, & at eleven we set off in the carriage. – Crossing Pont Nedd Vechan, ^<13> we entered Brecknock, ^<14> or as it has been called from its ruggedness, Breakneck shire: & after a drive of seven miles, we got out, & walked over the fields to Porth-yr-Ogof, “The Gate of the Cavern”. ^<15> This is a rocky dell between two Hills, through which flows a beautifully transparent river, & enters a gloomy extensive Cavern, which terminates the Valley. Into this Cavern, having provided ourselves with Candles, we entered, & penetrated to a considerable distance, in various directions. – Small ^<16> of water, like pearls, are continually falling from the Roof, which is sometimes pretty high, & at others very low, of a stalactitic nature; sometimes sparry, sometimes like a cauliflower. The floor was in some parts pebbly, elsewhere of a hard clay; – In some places, further entrance is prevented by the river, of extreme depth, but such was the darkness of the Cavern, that we could not see it, except by throwing in large stones, which produced a wave of light, accompanied by an awful hollow sound. –

Turn Over

The neighbourhood of this place abounded with the rarest plants: among which I gathered three most beautiful Ferns, Aspidium Lonchitis, Aspidium Oreopteris, & Cyathea fragilis. – There was the beautiful Alchemilla, Ladies Mantle, in full bloom, and the pretty Sanguisorba, Great Burnet. – The Geranium pratense which you admired so much last year in Westmoreland, was unfortunately out of blossom: but I knew it by its leaves – The quantities also of rare Mosses, was quite astonishing, & Jane & myself made an ample collection of them. – You see they have not hindered me from writing a long journal to you, which shall be continued in my next.

Y^rs Aff^tly
Henry

The Lady Elisabeth Feilding
Bowood. –

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Notes:

1. Penrice Castle and Penrice House, Gower, Glamorgan, 10 mi SW of Swansea: home of Christopher Rice Mansel Talbot.

2. Bowood House, nr Calne, Wiltshire, 5 mi NE of Lacock: seat of the Marquess of Lansdowne.

3. Caroline Augusta Edgcumbe, née Feilding, Lady Mt Edgcumbe (1808–1881); WHFT’s half-sister, and Henrietta Horatia Maria Gaisford, née Feilding (1810–1851), WHFT’s half-sister.

4. Barming, Kent.

5. Burley, Stamford.

6. See Doc. No: 00659.

7. Sir Christopher Cole (1770–1836), Captain, MP & naval officer; Lady Mary Lucy Cole, née Strangways, first m. Talbot (1776–1855), WHFT’s aunt; Mary Thereza Talbot (1795–1861), WHFT’s cousin; Jane Harriot Nicholl, née Talbot (1796–1874).

8. Neath valley, Swansea, South Wales.

9. A sixteenth century inn, Bridgend, South Wales.

10. Christopher Rice Mansel Talbot (1803–1890), immensely wealthy landowner, mathematician & politician; WHFT’s Welsh cousin.

11. This is what is now known as Gnoll Estate Country Park in Neath, though the house is no longer there. The Mr Grant referred to would have been Henry Grant (1743-1831) who purchased Knoll House in 1811.

12. Probably a reference to James Bruce’s, Travels to discover the source of the Nile: In the years 1768, 1769, 1770,1771, 1772, and 1773 (Edinburgh: J. Ruthven, 1790).

13. Pont Nedd Vechan, South Wales.

14. Brecknock, Wales.

15. Porth-yr-Ogof or Cavern Gate, a famous cavern about a mile south of Ystradfellte, county of Brecon, Wales.

16. Text torn away under seal.