My dear Henry,
It is very long since you & I have had any Intercourse, indeed it seems like ages past; but I have been for some weeks intending to send you some specimens of a new kind of Manufacture, which will I think, interest you in a scientific point of view, & which will accompany this letter.<1>
The specimens are of different kinds of Paper, manufactured at Dorchester from the Fibres of Fir trees, which they purchase from Henry’s<2> plantations at Moreton. There is a fourth kind, of which I have no specimen to send & which is thick & of a dark blue colour, like that in which grocer’s pack their Coffee. Hitherto no Whiter Paper has been made, but they hope soon to accomplish Manufacturing White Paper & have promised me some specimens Whenever they are successful.
It strikes me as a very curious & interesting Manufacture, & I sent some Specimens to Sir Charles Lemon,<3> who was much pleased & interested in it, & as I think it is in your way too, I cannot forbear making it also known to you. The Master of the Factory keeps the mode of Manufacture a great secret, & allows no one to see the works.
Harriot <4> tells me you are at Lacock, so I direct there.
Your affte cousin
Louisa Charlotte Frampton
Lulworth Villa
Babbicombe
Torquay – Decr 9th –
[envelope:]
Henry Talbot Esqre
Lacock Abbey
Chippenham
Wilts-
Notes:
1. Samples no longer with letter.
2. Henry Frampton (1804-1879).
3. Sir Charles Lemon (1784-13 Feb 1868), politician & scientist; WHFT's uncle.
4. Harriot Georgiana Mundy, née Frampton (1806-1886); WHFT's cousin & sister-in-law; married William Mundy, 1830.