Friday 12th Decr
L. Abbey
My Dear Henry
Caroline <1> has selected a few of the best for the Q. <2> but is not decided about sending them & yet She thinks it too long to put it off till she is in Waiting again, which will not be till February. She would have bought the coloured one of the P. of W. <3> had the likeness been preserved, which she says it is in yours but somehow in printing it the Artist has made the face rounder & fatter which has destroyed the resemblance, as he happens to have a very oval face for so young a child, & the artist has made him in fact prettier than he is. Caroline if she does not buy it, is requested by Nicole <4> to return it, [but this?] she is very unwilling to do, because she says He has no right to keep it & has committed a grave indiscretion, this is an awkward predicament. Caroline goes on Wednesday & if you come it is arranged that you are to have the Confessional, as Ernestine <5> is in possession of your room, & very comfortable it looks with a good fire. Tomorrow we are to have what is called in story phrase a spread we shall be twelve at dinner! the Shelburns, Ld Lansdowne Sotherons, Mr West Awdry <6> & ourselves make up the component parts. Two Gents called here & saw the Cloisters they wanted to see you. One is Mr Bridges, <7> Father of a great friend of Val’s <8> at Maisemore School
[envelope:]
H. F. Talbot Er
31. Sackville Street
London
Notes:
1. Caroline Augusta Edgcumbe, née Feilding, Lady Mt Edgcumbe (1808–1881); WHFT’s half-sister.
2. Victoria (1819–1901), Queen of the United Kingdom (1837–1901), Empress of India (1876–1901).
3. Edward VII (1841–1910), King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and of the British dominions and emperor of India from 1901.
4. Nicolaas Henneman (1813–1898), Dutch, active in England; WHFT’s valet, then assistant; photographer.
5. Ernestine Emma Horatia Edgcumbe (1843-1925), WHFT’s niece.
6. Sir Henry Petty Fitzmaurice, Lord Shelburne, 4th Marquess of Lansdowne (1816–1866), MP and WHFT's cousin, and his second wife, Hon Emily Jane Mercer-Elphinstone-de Flahault, Baroness Nairne (1819-1895); Henry Petty Fitzmaurice, 3rd Marquess of Lansdowne (1780–1863), MP, WHFT’s uncle; Thomas Henry Sutton Sotheron Bucknall Estcourt (1801–1876), MP; and his wife, Lucy Sarah (d. 1870), daughter of Admiral Frank Sotheran. West Awdry (1807–1892), solicitor, Chippenham.
7. Rev George Wilson Bridges (1788–1863), photographer and traveller.
8. William Henry Edgcumbe, ‘Val’, 4th Earl Mt Edgcumbe (1832–1917), JP & Ld Steward of the Royal Household; WHFT’s nephew ‘Bimbo’.