Lacock Abbey
Thursday
My Dear Mr F.
So far from the Election taking place tomorrow it is doubtful whether it will be before Wednesday; I therefore regret very much my mother’s<1> last letter to you, and further that you will lose the opportunity of going to Town as you intended. I wonder Horatia<2> decided against a scheme which would have given her 4 or 5 days of Caroline’s<3> society. Fires have been lighted in your rooms; dinner ordered, and Delorme <4> has laid in a stock of provisions –
Chippenham<5> is quite quiet, no scrawling on the walls, scarcely a placard, no shouting and little bell ringing. My opponent Mayne<6> not having yet appeared or announced his coming, rumours are arising that he means to shirk the contest to avoid paying his share of the expense of the hustings! He is very unpopular with the better class of Electors, for as a farmer observed to me “we do hear but a middlenish sound of he”. I am tired with riding all over the country in search of the scattered habitations of the voters. No opposition at Calne to Kerry,<7> nor at Malmsbury to Andover.<8> Great quarrelling at Marlborough where Ld Ailesbury<9> insists upon returning both members.
Yours afftly
Henry Talbot
Capt. Feilding R.N.
Melbury<10>
Dorchester
Dorset
Notes:
1. Lady Elisabeth Theresa Feilding, née Fox Strangways, first m Talbot (1773–1846), WHFT’s mother.
2. Henrietta Horatia Maria Gaisford, née Feilding (1810–1851), WHFT’s half-sister.
3. Caroline Augusta Edgcumbe, née Feilding, Lady Mt Edgcumbe (1808–1881); WHFT’s half-sister.
4. Cook.
5. Chippenham, Wiltshire: largest town near Lacock, 3 miles N.
6. John Mayne. [See Doc. No: 02507].
7. William Thomas Fitzmaurice, Earl of Kerry (1811–1836), MP sat for Calne, Wiltshire, 5 mi NE of Lacock from 1832 until his death.
8. Charles Howard, Viscount Andover, later 17th Earl of Suffolk, 1805-76. He was elected a Liberal MP for Malmesbury at the 1832 general election.
9. Lord Ernest Augustus Charles Brudenell-Bruce, later 3rd Marquess of Ailesbury (1811-1886) and Henry Bingham Baring (1804-1869) were elected Tory MPs for Marlborough at the 1832 general election.
10. Melbury, Dorset: one of the Fox Strangways family homes; WHFT was born there.