Lacock Abbey
Sunday Oct 6^th

My dear Henry

I received your letter from Durham yesterday ^<1>– but having written the day before (Friday) to Jedburgh, ^<2>I reserved myself for Edinburgh till today – I am so sorry at your being so fatigued by the York Meeting ^<3> – I rather think you must have indulged too much in your fasting propensities – I know that you forget to eat when you are busy – & get exhausted before you are aware – so that you have not strength to meet any unusual fatigue. Do please eat some sandwiches or other luncheon between your breakfast & tea – and breakfasting early too, (which of course you do now) makes it necessary to have luncheon – I cannot otherwise account for your being so knocked up – The Literary Gazette ^<4> condemns the the Residents of York for their want of hospitality to the members – only Lord Fitzwilliam & the Archbishop ^<5> seem to have given entertainments – You individually would not complain of this. – I wish you had given me leave to send you a budget of letters to Edinburgh – for there are some which I fancy you ought to have – At least when I see the same handwriting twice within a few posts I imagine the writer to be anxious for a reply – These 2 I fancy may be from M^r Collen ^<6> – though I don’t know his handwriting well enough to be certain – Two others in a delicate character both addressed to you at York & in the same hand arrived from thence this morning. A fifth letter there is – addressed

Royal Polytechnic Institution
Regent St London

and on the seal is, Horsley (I think) Chemist, Ryde, Isle of Wight – Will you say in your next whether you will have these letters forwarded? I enclose one rec^d from Horatia ^<7> this morning – How happy she seems to be at Carclew – her description makes one wish to see it too. –

I had a much more communicative letter from Marian ^<8> yesterday – she seems now to be very happy – & speaks of being much stronger than for a length of time past – She says the sons & daughters ^<9> are continually contriving & striving to give her pleasure – It is a great comfort to me to feel that she is happy – though I dislike as much as ever the price she has paid for it –

The children ^<10> are going on, as I said in my last, – very well –

Your aff^te
Constance

There is a York Liverpool Standard of Tuesday – I can’t make out by its contents the reason of its being sent – but I will keep it –

[envelope:]
Henry Fox Talbot Esq
Post Office
Edinburgh

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Notes:

1. See Doc. No: 05089.

2. See Doc. No: 05092.

3. The annual meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science on 26th September.

4. The Literary Gazette and Journal of belles lettres, science and art.

5. Sir William Thomas Spencer Wentworth Fitzwilliam, 6^th Earl Fitzwilliam (1815–1902) and The Hon. Edward Venables Vernon (d.1847).

6. Henry Collen (1800–1879), miniature painter, calotypist & spiritualist, London. See Doc. No: 04456 and Doc. No: 00373.

7. Henrietta Horatia Maria Gaisford, née Feilding (1810–1851), WHFT’s half-sister.

8. Her sister, Marian Gilder, née Mundy (1806 – 14 October 1860); m. 6 August 1844 William Troward Gilder (d. 1871), Army Surgeon (ret).

9. Gilder married his first wife, Elizabeth, née Boys, in 1819. It has yet to be determined when she died and whether they had any children, but presumably this reference is to them.

10. Ela Theresa Talbot (1835–1893), WHFT’s 1^st daughter, Rosamond Constance ‘Monie’ Talbot (1837–1906), artist & WHFT’s 2^nd daughter, Matilda Caroline Gilchrist-Clark, ‘Tilly’, née Talbot (1839–1927), WHFT’s 3^rd daughter and Charles Henry Talbot (1842–1916), antiquary & WHFT’s only son.