Laycock abbey
2d October
My Dear Henry
Your Letter from Alton Towers <1> gave me the greatest pleasure, for in the first place it was very amusing & in the next you have written to me so seldom lately that la rareté du fait <2> alone would have made it welcome – However I should not have stood upon ceremony nor have waited for Letters before I wrote to you, had I had anything to communicate except what Caroline & Horatia <3> described of our gaieties, besides my time being fully taken up, as the House was “without o’erflowing full”, for a great number of of weeks. all are now departed except Count Zamoisky <4> who goes tomorrow. Yesterday I went with Mr Luttrell <5> & Amandier <6> to see Mr Beckford’s House <7> at Bath & his Tower on Lansdowne, <8> the pictures in both are beautiful, & the fitting up much too good & too well chosen for such a locale. Caroline seems now to wish her confinement to take place here & has written to Lord V– <9> in Cornwall to propose it, it is now under his decision – She must like it to be born at the Abbey very most particularly.
I should like to be better acquainted with our accomplished cousins, which I probably shall be if they are to be in London this year, though it will be impossible to get on much in that Emporium of elaborate idleness. Caroline is very well & is sitting drawing on the Terrace, a view of the South front for a souvenir for Zamoisky to take with him. Everybody likes t<his> <10> place that have <sic> ever been to stay <here?> there must be something attaching in it. What lovely weather for your tour – I hope you have received 3 letters I have directed on to you
God bless you
Pray write again soon
Henry Fox Talbot Esqr
Post Office
Bangor
North Wales
Manchester <11>
Notes:
1. See Doc. No: 02424.
2. The infrequency of the event.
3. Caroline Augusta Edgcumbe, née Feilding, Lady Mt Edgcumbe (1808–1881); WHFT’s half-sister, and Henrietta Horatia Maria Gaisford, née Feilding (1810–1851), WHFT’s half-sister.
4. Count Wladyslaw Zamoyski (1803–1868), Polish patriot who came to live in London, where he was involved in the emigré organisation set up by his uncle, Prince Adam Czartoryski, to work for a free Poland.
5. Henry Luttrell (d. 1851), poet.
6. Amélina Petit De Billier, ‘Mamie’, ‘Amandier’ (1798–1876), governess and later close friend of the Talbot family [See Amélina's journal ].
7. William Beckford (1759–1844). [See Doc. No: 03457].
8. Fonthill, and Lansdowne Hill.
9. Ernest Augustus Edgcumbe, Lord Valletort, 3rd Earl of Mt Edgcumbe (1797–1861), WHFT’s brother-in-law.
10. Text torn away under seal.
11. Readdressed in another hand.