Farrance’s Hotel <1>
Thursday June 2nd 1853
My dear Henry
I think I told you I had been invited to go to the Deanery for the Installation at Oxford, & that I waited till I got home, to see how things were going on there, before I gave an answer.
I found Ernestine <2> much better, & Milord <3> much as usual – better the last two days – & there is certainly some improvement in his right hand. The Tutor is arrived too – so that Charlie’s <4> time is now fully employed – I settled therefore to combine as much as I could in a short space of time, & came up last night for the Drawingroom today, & the Concert at the palace tomorrow, & on Monday I am to go to Oxford – The ceremonies, speeches in the Theatre &c, begin next day. Now I have explained my movements, I come to the immediate purpose of this letter. Val <5> came up yesterday with his friend Oakeley, <6> for a morning Concert at the Opera Concert room – & I saw him for about an hour before he went back by the Mail Train. – He was going to write & ask you to go to the Installation (wh will also be like a Grand Commemoration a thing wh only takes place once in 3 or 4 years) – but as he was going to be dreadfully busy about his Collections, <7> I promised to do so for him – It wd be very nice to see you there – if you did not mind being very uncomfortably lodged in Val’s rooms – He says he can feed you perfectly – besides which you wd of course be invited to the Deanery – But they could not possibly take you in – It is all they can do to squeeze me in – & the best room they had intended for me, they are keeping for the D. of Cambridge, <8> who has signified his intention of being present at the ceremony – whether he accepts or not, I do not know. Val says that at these grand doings, a species of Saturnalia goes on, during which anybody may do anything – & he therefore can make you up a bed in his rooms – a thing prohibited in more sober times. But it is a very small poky room, & he is afraid, as he elegantly expresses himself, that you wd not like to pig it with him – only it opens into a charming large room, where you wd be very comfortable for breakfast &c – & his Servant is a most comfortable little man – Or if you like, Val cd look out for a lodging for you – Will you let him know which you prefer?
Val thinks the undergraduates are likely to make a demonstration in the Theatre – as altho’ I believe Ld Derby <9> is popular among them, it seems he has chosen all his ministerial colleagues to be honoured with the Degree of Doctor of Civil Law on this occasion – & that is likely to be considered so political, as to cause discontent.
Val begged me to ask you to send your answer to him at Christ Church, by Return of Post – Do go – it will rouse you & do you good. – I saw the little Flora Porcelli <10> at Ly Brownlow’s last night – She is a perfect young Arab – so brown & with such immense black eyes –
Give my love to Constance & the Girls, <11> & thank Amandier <12> for her long letter – I hope they have not got the Influenza
Ever yr affte Sister
Caroline
[envelope:]
Henry Fox Talbot
Esqre
Laycock Abbey
Chippenham
Notes:
1. Farrance’s Hotel, Belgrave Street, London.
2. Ernestine Emma Horatia Edgcumbe (1843-1925), WHFT’s niece.
3. Ernest Augustus Edgcumbe, Lord Valletort, 3rd Earl of Mt Edgcumbe (1797–1861), WHFT’s brother-in-law.
4. Charles Earnest Edgcumbe (1838–1915), JP, WHFT’s nephew.
5. William Henry Edgcumbe, ‘Val’, 4th Earl Mt Edgcumbe (1832–1917), JP & Ld Steward of the Royal Household; WHFT’s nephew ‘Bimbo’.
6. Sir Herbert Stanley Oakeley (1830–1903), Prof of Music at Edinburgh.
7. End–of–term examintions at Oxford.
8. George William Frederick Charles (1819–1904), 2nd Duke of Cambridge.
9. Edward George Geoffrey Smith Stanley (1799–1869), 14th Earl of Derby, statesman; attempted to form conservative ministry, 1851. He was prime minister, 1852, 1858, and 1866.
10. Flora St George, née Porcelli, daughter of Annie Sarah (sometimes Sarah Anne) MacDonald, whose mother was sister to Caroline Edgcumbe’s husband, Lord Mt Edgcumbe. In 1848, she married Alfredo Salvatori Ruggioro Andrea, Baron Porceilli di Sant Andrea, a Sicilian nobleman and revolutionary commander.
11. Constance Talbot, née Mundy (1811–1880), WHFT’s wife and Ela Theresa Talbot (1835–1893), WHFT’s 1st daughter, Rosamond Constance ‘Monie’ Talbot (1837–1906), artist & WHFT’s 2nd daughter and Matilda Caroline Gilchrist-Clark, ‘Tilly’, née Talbot (1839–1927), WHFT’s 3rd daughter.
12. Amélina Petit De Billier, ‘Mamie’, ‘Amandier’ (1798–1876), governess and later close friend of the Talbot family [See Amélina's journal].