Lulworth Villa
St Mary Church
Torquay – June 5th 1875
My dear Henry
I hope Harriot <1> told you how much I felt obliged by your interest in, & advice concerning my Memoirs of Mrs Campbell;<2> & by your kind offer of writing to your Publisher. I now write to know whether you have done so, & what is his answer, as I have made an Abridgement of the Memoirs expressly for a Magazine, which I think will answer very well, & my Précis of which, sent to Harriot, she highly approves, & I am anxious to know what your Publisher says on the subject. If he is hopeless, I shall put an iron in the fire in another direction, but I must know what hopes there are through him before I take further steps. In any case I hope you will not withhold the staff of your supporting approval, & corroboration of its authenticity & veracity. if I should ever find a Magazine Editor, and should need it. In the abridgement, I have given her early life & connections, (omitting your Mother’s letters-)<3>
The war in Canada, Banquet, & going to Bermudas (omitting the Hervey Island anecdote & the details of her Tablet–)<4> but stating her grief & its erection, because of B. Stockmar<5>–
All about the Pss C. – & Baron S. A short private life – (omitting all the anecdotes,) & shortened account of her death – All notes omitted – only what is necessary, between brackets as you read – Conclusion of 2 2d sights & a very short notice, (much too mild!) of the removal of the Monument,<6> which Harriot approves, so you will altogether about 37 copy book pages. I intend making, if I have strength, a 2d copy of this Abridgement, lest one should be lost in sending it about, & I could send you the rough but perfect copy, to send on to your Book seller, if he would wish to see it, or you would wish him to do so.
For Hart I have made a Memoir suitable for the family, only omitting the Cowes Anecdote – With all the notes & one or two others she wished to have added. Love to Constance. <7>
Yr aff cousin
Louisa C. Frampton
[envelope:]
Henry Fox Talbot Esqre.
4, Circus
Bath
The Abbey
Lacock
Chippenham
Notes:
1. Harriot Georgiana Mundy, née Frampton (1806-1886), WHFT’s cousin & sister-in-law.
2. See Louisa Charlotte Frampton,‘Princess Charlotte and Mrs Campbell’, The Gentleman’s Magazine, n.s. v. 27, September 1876, pp. 275-289. Alicia Campbell, née Kelly, ‘Tam’ (1768–1829), a close family friend of the Framptons, first joined Princess Charlotte’s household in 1805.
3. Lady Elisabeth Theresa Feilding, née Fox Strangways, first m. Talbot (1773 - 12 March 1846), WHFT's mother. It is not known what letters she is referring to.
4. Mrs. Campbell accompanied her husband, Major William Campbell (1750-1796) to a posting in Canada, where he commanded Fort Miami, Ohio. On 7 January 1796, she attended an official London banquet in honour of her husband for his service in North America; Princess Charlotte of Wales was born and toasted on the day of the banquet. Lt. Col. William Campbell was appointed Governor of Bermuda but died shortly after arrival. Hervey Island (now called Manuae) was the first island Captain James Cook sighted in 1773. His first name for it was Sandwich Island, but later he transferred this to Hawaii. He re-named it Hervey Island, in honour of the Lord of the Admiralty, Augustus Hervey, 3rd Earl of Bristol. Variations of this name persisted until 1824, when the group was renamed the Cook Islands. In 1872, Louisa attempted to locate the tablet erected in Mrs. Campbell's memory, but it could not be found in St. James, Westminster, where she was interred. Louisa assumed that it must have been erected out of doors and neglected to the point of ruin.
5. Christian Friedrich, Baron von Stockmar (1787–1863), a German physician of Swedish descent. As a statesman, he was influential in English and Belgian affairs.
6. The removal from St George’s Chapel, Windsor of a monument to King Leopold I of Belgium (1790-1865).
7. Constance Talbot, née Mundy (1811–1880), WHFT’s wife.