Caroline <1> flatters herself you will be lost in admiration when you see her new Garden of which you gave her a lease at a pepper corn rent. When you went away it was scarcely defriché, <2> & was still in the hands of the Backwoodsman,* but now thanks to the savoir faire of il vecchio Onofrio <3> it has assumed a form likely to eclipse all the flower gardens on the premises.
Mr Strong <4> has relapsed into his wonted tiresomeness, not sending the stone the day he engaged to do so, consequently masons waiting for work [illegible] I gave him no hopes that I was going away, I knew that would make him too happy. He could not conceal his chagrin when he heard you were coming next Monday
* Mr Montgomerie <5> who first laid it out on the Shelf as well as Griselda. Mr F. <6> says everybody is unlucky in horseflesh - To day it snows
Yrs affly
E F
Henry Talbot Esqre
31. Sackville Street
Notes:
1. Caroline Augusta Edgcumbe, née Feilding, Lady Mt Edgcumbe (1808-1881); WHFT's half-sister.
2. She means cleared for cultivation.
3. The old Onofrio.
4. Strong's identity has yet to be established. However, Awdry met Mr. Strong at Box [see Doc. No: 02006], the Wiltshire hamlet whose quarry originally provided Lacock Abbey with its stone. It is possible that Strong was there temporarily to select stone for the renovations at Lacock Abbey, but given the expansion of the area in the 19th c., perhaps Strong was resident there. The 1841 census for Box (the earliest one available) points to two possibilities. The first, James Strong (b. 1796), was a mason, but the Lacock mason, Charles Selman Banks (1805-1881) did most of the masonry at Lacock at this time. Thomas Strong (b. 1781) was a builder, and seems the more likely candidate.
5. Rev George Stephen Molyneux Montgomerie (1790-1850), close friend of Talbot family, artist, Rector of Garboldisham, near Thetford, Norfolk.
6. Rear Admiral Charles Feilding (1780-1837), Royal Navy; WHFT's step-father.