[this is written on the same sheet as a note from Horatia - see Doc. No: 01190]
London
Aug. 2nd 1830
My dear Henry
I am horror struck at the thoughts of Strong’s <1> doing any thing out of his own head. Your Aunt Louisa <2> warned you against that. She said it was his only fault. We send you two Papers by this post, hope you received the others
The Paragraph in the Court Journal means Lady Strachan There has been gran romore <3> about it.
I do not think the English would shew half the spirit the French have done en pareil cas <4>.
W. H. Fox Talbot Esqre
Lacock Abbey
Chippenham
Wilts
Notes:
1. Strong's identity has yet to be established. However, Awdry met Mr. Strong at Box [see Doc. No: 02006], the Wiltshire hamlet whose quarry originally provided Lacock Abbey with its stone. It is possible that Strong was there temporarily to select stone for the renovations at Lacock Abbey, but given the expansion of the area in the 19th c., perhaps Strong was resident there. The 1841 census for Box (the earliest one available) points to two possibilities. The first, James Strong (b. 1796), was a mason, but the Lacock mason, Charles Selman Banks (1805-1881) did most of the masonry at Lacock at this time. Thomas Strong (b. 1781) was a builder, and seems the more likely candidate.
2. Louisa Emma Petty Fitzmaurice, née Fox Strangways, Marchioness of Lansdowne (1785-1851), wife of Henry Petty Fitzmaurice, 3rd Marquess of Lansdowne; Lady of the Bedchamber to Queen Victoria, 1837-1838; WHFT's aunt.
3. Much noise.
4. In the same situation.