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Document number: 02320
Date: Sat 17 Mar 1832
Dating: confirmed by 02322
Recipient: TALBOT William Henry Fox
Author: GAISFORD Henrietta Horatia Maria, née Feilding
Collection: British Library, London, Manuscripts - Fox Talbot Collection
Last updated: 20th December 2010

London
Saturday
17th March

My Dear Henry

Mama <1> is gone out with Caroline <2> & has left me this to finish Papa <3> has got a fit of the gout so we shall not be able to go Tuesday; which nothing else could have prevented us doing. We shall probably be at Laycock Wednesday but it is not certain as we cannot tell how soon he will be well again. It is not a very bad fit however but it depresses his spirits. Caroline is a little better today. We were at a ball last night at Mrs Heneage’s <4> – a very nice house & just the sort of ball you like – not very fine La Duchesse de Dino <5> has one next Friday which we shall not be here for. Amandier <6> is going Tuesday with Melle de Longchamp <7> to Calais, in spite of the untempting description of the Quarantine house that Will Gallwey <8> wrote Papa. However they prefer it to the long sea voyage by Haore & perhaps they are right. I am sorry you think of leaving Laycock so soon – it was scarcely worth while to be in such a hurry to get there – & if you meant to spend only ten days there, you might as well have waited for us – But you are a drôle de corps <9> always. Addio – believe me notwithstanding

your very affte sister
Horatia

I am sorry to hear there are nothing but snowdrops & crocusses in bloom – I expected hyacinths narcissuses, tulips & what not – Pray tell all my flowers to bestir themselves a little against I come, or else another time I will not abandon the gaieties of London to go & visit them in the Spring.

W. H. Fox Talbot Esqre
Laycock Abbey
Chippenham
Wilts

Notes:

1. Lady Elisabeth Theresa Feilding, née Fox Strangways, first m Talbot (1773–1846), WHFT’s mother.

2. Caroline Augusta Edgcumbe, née Feilding, Lady Mt Edgcumbe (1808–1881); WHFT’s half-sister.

3. Rear Admiral Charles Feilding (1780–1837), Royal Navy; WHFT’s step-father. [See Doc. No: 02322].

4. Mrs George Walker Heneage.

5. Probably Dorothée, Duchess of Dino (1793–1862).

6. Amélina Petit De Billier, ‘Mamie’, ‘Amandier’ (1798–1876), governess and later close friend of the Talbot family [See Amélina's journal].

7. See Doc. No: 02324.

8. Sir William Payne Gallwey, 2nd Bart (1807-1881), son of Lt Gen Sir William Payne Gallwey, 1st Bart (1759-1831) and Lady Harriet Payne Gallwey (1784-1845), née Quin.

9. Queer chap.