[this is written on the same sheet as a note from Horatia - see Doc. No: 02727]
Laycock Abbey
Wednesday 23d Decr
My Dear Henry
Tomorrow we go to Bowood <1> – spend Xmas day there & return here Saturday, so that I am afraid we shall not be able to send the carriage to meet you at Chippenham or Melksham <2> which ever it is – It is very odd & provoking about Job. I cannot imagine what is come to him. We have heard nothing here since he went. There is nobody at Bowood but Mary Fox & her brother Henry <3> nor is there likely to be I believe on account of the dangerous illness of Lord L’s aunt, Miss Vernon <4> – & Kerry <5> is very unwell, they say is it indigestion, which seems to be the complaint of all the world – I long to see Mr Hopper’s <6> ideas, I suppose you will bring some of them with you.
affy yrs
ETF
W. H. Fox Talbot Esqre
31 Sackville Street
London
Notes:
1. Bowood House, nr Calne, Wiltshire, 5 mi NE of Lacock: seat of the Marquess of Lansdowne.
2. Chippenham, Wiltshire: largest town near Lacock, 3 miles N, and Melksham, Wiltshire: market town near Lacock, 2 miles S.
3. Lady Mary Elizabeth Fox (1806-1891) and Henry Edward Fox, 4th Baron Holland and 4th Baron Holland of Foxley (1802-1859).
4. See Doc. No: 02108.
5. William Thomas Fitzmaurice, Earl of Kerry (1811–1836), MP.
6. Thomas Hopper (1776–1856), architect & surveyor, London.