[written on the same sheet as a note by Caroline - see Doc. No: 01297 ]
Laycock Abbey
19th August
My Dear Henry
I have just received your Letter from Rheims <1> & really think that between the bad roads & bad weather you would have been quite as well off in the Snails mead. I feel quite glad we have been keeping the house warm during such a damp season, & am sure we must have done great good. I find that at Castle Coombe <2> they are equally damp & cannot get the walls to dry, enough to paper their rooms, & it is some satisfaction to hear that Lord Carnarvon <3> (who has had no architect) is so dissatisfied that he has pulled down what he did at Highclere & is doing it over again. Mr Scrope <4> told me yesterday if he was to build another house he would not undertake it without a Clerk of the Works again It is a prodigious consolation to hear of the mistakes of others.
Vale <5>
Monsr
Monsieur Henry Fox Talbot
Poste Restante
Genève
en Suisse
Notes:
1. See Doc. No: 01699.
2. Castle Combe, Wiltshire, 7 mi NW of Lacock.
3. Henry George Herbert, 2nd Earl of Carnarvon (1772–1833).
4. George Julius Duncombe Poulett Scrope (1797–1876), MP & scientist.
5. Farewell.