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Document number: 05890
Date: Sun 21 Feb 1847
Recipient: TALBOT William Henry Fox
Author: TALBOT Constance, née Mundy
Collection: British Library, London, Manuscripts - Fox Talbot Collection
Collection number historic: Acc no 20153 (envelope only)
Last updated: 28th January 2015

Lacock Abbey
Sunday Feb 21

My dear Henry

I wish you joy of having secured such a pleasant house and so cheap!<1> and now that you have actually signed the agreement it will not slip through your hands like the 2 others – Caroline <2> has been so kind as to send us for perusal your animated description of the house – by which it appears there is abundance of rooms – Are there any beds now in those 2 small drawing rooms or the 2 back dining rooms? which you say might be & have been used as bed rooms? – I think (if you don’t wish us to go up on Saturday) I should prefer Monday for moving – We can pack the chief part of our things on Saturday – & leave home by the 2 o’clock train on Monday – Evans <3> & the H. Maid can go up either Thursday or Friday as you think best – or if you wish them to go Wednesday on account of being really useful in forwarding the preparations, I will spare them. – But on this point will you kindly give me instructions either by return of post or on the following day – & I will take care that they are in readiness to set off at an hour’s notice – Horatia <4> is going to spend part of this week at Bowood <5> where Aunt Louisa <6> will be on Tuesday. Afterwards she will return here for 2 or 3 days. –

Mlle A. <7> resigns herself pretty composedly to the approaching move –

Ld Mt Edgcumbe <8> was worse on Friday – but the account of this morning is greatly better – poor man. – It is a very long illness – & since it began he has never appeared in a fairly mending state – never got beyond a certain point –

Your affectionate
Constance

One of the 4 letters I forward today was unsealed when received. 3 re-directed & 1 enclosed with this.<9>

[envelope:]
H. F. Talbot Esqr
8 Russell Terrance
Reading

Notes:

1. 2 Mansfield Street, Portland Place, London - the Talbots stayed there through the summer of 1847.

2. Caroline Augusta Edgcumbe, née Feilding, Lady Mt Edgcumbe (1808–1881); WHFT’s half-sister.

3. A female servant employed for a short time in 1847.

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

5. Bowood House, nr Calne, Wiltshire, 5 mi NE of Lacock: seat of the Marquess of Lansdowne.

6. Louisa Emma Petty Fitzmaurice, née Fox Strangways, Marchioness of Lansdowne (1785-1851), wife of Henry Petty Fitzmaurice, 3rd Marquess of Lansdowne; Lady of the Bedchamber to Queen Victoria, 1837-1838; WHFT's aunt.

7. Amélina Petit De Billier, ‘Mamie’, ‘Amandier’ (1798–1876), governess and later close friend of the Talbot family [See Amélina's journal].

8. Ernest Augustus Edgcumbe, Lord Valletort, 3rd Earl of Mt Edgcumbe (1797–1861), WHFT’s brother-in-law.

9. No enclosure.