Chippenham
3 Nov. 1868
Dear Sir,
I have remitted £125ּ to your Son’s <1> Bankers at Melksham and have paid £80 – for half years Interest due on £4000ּ for which I enclose a receipt, and will remit £700ּ to Messrs Coutts & Co <2> for your credit by tonights post. All my family except myself felt the Earthquake on Friday night. I was very tired and had retired earlier than usual, and must have been asleep at the moment of the shock – it seems to have been felt very generally in England I have heard of it from friends in Surry & Shropshire – and I see many notices of it in the Papers. I little thought when we were talking of what had happened in Peru, how near a similar phænomena was approaching us though happily in so mitigated a form.
I remain
Yours obliged
West Awdry
Notes:
1. Charles Henry Talbot (1842–1916), antiquary & WHFT’s only son.
2. Coutts & Company, bankers, London.