[this is written on the same sheet as a note from Lady Elisabeth: Doc. No: 01701]
Laycock abbey
14th August
Carissimo Enrico <1>
I was very glad to hear you had arrived safe at Calais – it was very good of you to write as you had promised. I hope you have better weather than we. – it has not ceased raining hardly since we have been here, however our garden is very pretty – the Tyger Lily is beautiful, it flowers almost every day – I have got 4 Lobelia fulgens in bloom, and 2 Dahlias – & several yellow Coreopsis – There are several pretty things in your botanical garden – Chelone barbata – Coreopsis grandiflora – a pink flower that Caroline found at Pćstum, something like endive. Campanula allarifolia – Epilobium angustifolium – The field of Dahlias near our garden is in great beauty – there are a great many double ones – You cannot think how nice our two rooms are: mine has a very pretty pink paper – & C’s a green & white one. I am going to-day to Bowood <2> for 2 days to cure my cough.
Addio fratello carissimo <3>, pray write me a long letter, with an account of all you are doing, & I will tell you in return all about Blandford Races <4>, if we go.
Your very affte sister
Horatia
Monsr
Monsieur Henri Fox Talbot
Poste Restante
Genčve
en Suisse
Notes:
1. Dearest Henry.
2. Bowood House, nr Calne, Wiltshire, 5 mi NE of Lacock: seat of the Marquess of Lansdowne.
3. Goodbye dearest brother.
4. By 1603 a ‘Race Week’ had been established at Monkton Down and the ‘Blandford Races’, as they had become, continued until 1894.