[fragment]
14 March
S. Street <1>
My Dear Henry
We had a beautiful day for our journey, which we did in ten hours exclusive of the time wasted in eating at the Pelican Speenhamland. <2> The Sun was brilliant, here it is like the depth of winter again, from which we had just escaped. a raw cold foggy atmosphere to day, & very dark.
Before I was up a Gardener arrived from the Horticultural so impatient was your Mr Linley [sic]. <3> Wright <4> took a receipt.
I long to know how you get on with your neophyt[e]<5> If you are quite starved I suppose we shall see you here. I thought it a rash project, & admire your courage. After all I left L. without reminding you again of the coachhouse doors, if you do not paint them this Spring they will go the way of all wood, the way of the hothouse. Wright pointed them out to my attention again they have long wanted it, and are getting worse & worse. They are expensive things to renew, & even if you let the house the person will expect things to be left in good repair. Caroline <6> had got a private Box in hopes of persuading Horatia <7> to go with her to the play, but she would not hear of it, her spirits have not recovered the first arrival at this house, & the same journey in the same carriage as last year, little O how little did we think then! Mrs Marchant <8> having heard that a carriage & four had stopped to enquire for her came here this Morning thinking it could be nobody but us. The circumstance I suppose procured her great respect in the vicinity of the Hampshire Hog. Her daughter is very ill which has detained her, quite blind with an inflammation of the eyes & fatigue with attending on her husband, who she really greives [sic] for, & says he never said an unkind word to her. They are going to sell all the furniture & to go down to Laycock where Mrs FitzSim <9> means to hire two rooms in the village, & Mrs M. entreats to be allowed to let her daughter stay one night at the lodge which I made bold to promise she might. Mrs M. looks worn out, so I could not help giving her a sovereign to comfort her, but she has met with many friends & kind people. Mrs Hambledon in whose garden he worked has clothed them all in mourning besides sending food & wine constantly and the Doctor has & is now attending gratis. The Nurserymen too in a garden near have been extremely goodnatured to them. How surprized Mary Talbot <10> would be to hear that such goodhearted people dwell so near London, quite against all her theories. All this Sheet is for Constance’s <11> information and pray ask her to send word to Mrs M’s son at the lodge that his Mother is in the land of the living She had heard that he was very unhappy about her I suppose from the servants here. FitzSimons <12> must have conducted himself well since he left us, or he would not have made so many friends. William <13> has just unpacked a box from Naples, amongst other things a Lotus tree, but whether in posse or esse <14> I am not sure. Write me some Laycock news, Every thing there you know interests me. Remember that N. has never been whats called a family servant before, & so you must tell <15>
Notes:
1. 31 Sackville Street, London residence of the Feildings, often used as a London base by WHFT.
2. A suburb of Newbury, Berks.
3. The Horticultural Society of London. Prof John Lindley (1799–1865), botanist.
4. James Wright, footman to the Talbots & Constable for Lacock.
5. Written off the edge of page.
6. Caroline Augusta Edgcumbe, née Feilding, Lady Mt Edgcumbe (1808–1881); WHFT’s half-sister.
7. Henrietta Horatia Maria Gaisford, née Feilding (1810–1851), WHFT’s half-sister.
8. See Doc. No: 02983
9. She probably means the wife of Cornelius Fitzsimmons, Scottish gardener at Lacock Abbey.
10. Mary Thereza Talbot (1795–1861), WHFT’s cousin.
11. Constance Talbot, née Mundy (1811–1880), WHFT’s wife.
12. Cornelius Fitzsimmons, Scottish gardener at Lacock Abbey.
13. William Thomas Horner Fox Strangways, 4th Earl of Ilchester (1795–1865), botanist, art collector & diplomat.
14. Potential or actual.
15. Letter incomplete, ending here.