Laycock Abbey
19 March
My Dear Henry
I had a letter yesterday from Augusta <1> with a very full & satisfactory account of Constance, <2> which she had gathered from Stone. <3> There are few people to whom her safety & welfare give more pleasure than Matilda <4> & Augusta who both like & admire her, and always regret they do not see as much of her as they wish. I feel a thousand times more tendresse <5> for the little girl than if she had been of the rougher sex, but remember I give notice that if Olive <6> is not one of her names I shall be very very very angry. You have been quite misinformed about my projects, as I fully intend to come here Deo volente on the 1st of August for three Months. what happens after that, it is now too soon to speculate upon.
Surely London cannot be a good place to find a Bailiff besides being probably dearer. Something should be known of his entourage & previous habits. Probably you read in the Papers of the Murder last week at Bowood, <7> it was by Lord L’s <8> Head Forester, who had been highly recommended but certainly by people who recommended without knowing him, at least the Steward & House keeper both told Mr F. <9> they had long for some time known what [illegible deletion] that he was a violent brutal improper person for the situation.
you have not answered about the creepers. I shall leave off writing you such long letters, for I believe you do not half read them. It will be impossible to plant anything against Barton’s <10> Malt house unless the Gardener makes a soil round it, for it is a nasty yellow clay, as I know well, because it is the very stuff I am now bringing to put in the bottom of the pond, & is what came out of the foundations of the house.
Monday
The weather has been so very bad that Cary <11> could not begin the roof till this Morning, when he made all preparations, scaffolding &c when behold it began [to]<12> snow, which it is still doing with all its might. The atmosphere is so impregnated with thick clouds of Snow that I can hardly see to write, though it is only two o’clock. Tourbillons de neiges [sic] à gros flocons <13> are going round & round in the cloister court, just like Melbury <14> on last Xmas day. The plantation in Fussell’s <15> field is gone all except half a dozen trees which if they do well, will have a fine effect from the South gallery windows & will appear to join Caroline copse which appears to join Inwood <16> – & Fussell so far from thinking of being paid for it, has promised they shall be taken the greatest care of, to please My lady, so I throw my shield over those trees to protect them from “flaxen headed plough boys”
Henry Fox Talbot Esqr
65 Harley Street
London
Notes:
1. Augusta Sophia Hicks, née Feilding, sister of WHFT’s step-father.
2. Constance Talbot, née Mundy (1811–1880), WHFT’s wife.
3. See Doc. No: 03466.
4. Matilda Feilding (1775-1849), WHFT's 'aunt' - sister of Charles Feilding, his stepfather.
5. Tenderness.
6. See Doc. No: 03478.
7. Bowood House, nr Calne, Wiltshire, 5 mi NE of Lacock: seat of the Marquess of Lansdowne.
8. Henry Petty Fitzmaurice, 3rd Marquess of Lansdowne (1780–1863), MP, WHFT’s uncle.
9. Rear Admiral Charles Feilding (1780–1837), Royal Navy; WHFT’s step-father.
10. Possibly Thomas Barton, listed as a tenant in 1826. [See Doc. No: 03466].
11. See Doc. No: 03457.
12. Text torn away under seal.
13. Whirlwinds of snow in great flakes.
14. Melbury, Dorset: one of the Fox Strangways family homes; WHFT was born there.
15. Stephen Fussell. [See Doc. No: 03470].
16. Inwood, near Lacock, Wiltshire.