Edwards’ Hotel
George St Hanover Sqre
Feby 18th
My dear Henry
I confess to having been sadly disappointed not to have had a line from either you or Constance<1> in answer to my letter after our visit to Mount Edgcumbe<2> –. As it was addressed to C. perhaps I ought not to blame you, but I expected you would both have appreciated my eagerness to give you the latest tidings of dear Caroline & all her belongings – more especially as we all know what a bad correspondent she is. – I now write because of your affection for Jane<3> to tell you of the engagement of Iltid<4> which appears to give them all pleasure and therefore you will like to hear of it. The object of his affections is a Daughter of Captn Jerningham<5> who is in command of some ships at Plymouth – She has two sisters (the eldest in a Convent) & this is Cecilia the youngest aged 19 – there is no Brother but still I fear it cannot be a good marriage in a pecuniary point of view tho I have hear no particulars. You will have been very sorry for the death of poor Mrs Gladstone <6> which was very sudden just at last – I mean that they were only alarmed the last few days – tho’ she had been ill ever since the summer. The Belmores<7> are just leaving Naples on their way home & it will be a help to poor Capt G. to have them to cheer him a little. –
We have many of our kinsfolk in London – Lansdowne House, the Howards, Kerrisons &c<8> – I have not seen Lord Lansdowne but Louisa<9> gives a better report of him than Ly Shelburne<10> who thinks him altered in some ways. However his spirit & spirits are the same as ever & he dined at Lord Granville’s State Dinner<11> the other day, & then went to the H. of Lords to hear Shelburne speak with as much glee as if he were 20 years younger. – Pray let me hear from you – we shall be here certainly untill [sic] the 25th & with love to all
Yr vy Affte
H G Mundy
[envelope:]
Henry Fox Talbot Esqre.
Millburn Tower
Edinburgh
Notes:
1. Constance Talbot, née Mundy (30 Jan 1811 - 9 Sep 1880), m. WHFT 20 Dec 1832.
2. Mt Edgecumbe, near Plymouth, home of Lady Caroline Augusta Edgcumbe, née Feilding (1808-1881), WHFT's half-sister, and her husband, Ernest Augustus Edgcumbe, Lord Valletort, 3rd Earl of Mt Edgcumbe (1797-1861).
3. Jane Harriot Nicholl, née Talbot (1796-1874), WHFT's cousin.
4. Iltyd Thomas Mansel Nicholl (1828–1885).
5. Capt Arthur William Jerningham (1807–1889) and Cecilia Mary Jerningham (d. 1879).
6. Elizabeth Honoria, née Bateson (d. 1862), the wife of Captain John Neilson Gladstone (1807–1863), MP.
7. Somerset Richard Lowry-Corry (1835-1914), 4th Earl Belmore, and his wife, Anne Elizabeth Honoria, née Gladstone (1841-1919).
8. Lansdowne House, London: home of the Marquis of Lansdowne, WHFT's uncle and cousins. Hon James Kenneth Howard (18144-1882) and his wife, Lady Louisa, née Petty-Fitzmaurice (d. 1906), WHFT’s cousin. Sir Edward Clarence Kerrison, 2nd Bart. (d. 1886) and his wife Caroline Margaret, née Fox Strangways (d. 1895).
9. Possibly Lady Louisa (note 8) but also possibly Louisa Charlotte Frampton (1808-1885), author.
10. Lady Emily Fitzmaurice, née Emily Jane Mercer Elphinstone de Flahault (1819-1895), Marchioness of Lansdowne, known as Lady Shelburne at the time of the letter, and second wife of Henry Thomas Petty Fitzmaurice, 4th Marquess of L, 1816-1866, known as Lord Shelburne at the time of the letter.
11. Granville George Leveson-Gower, 2nd Earl Granville (1815–1891), statesman. This was a full dress dinner on 5 February at Granville's London residence on Brunton Street.