Lacock
Thursday Night

Dear Sir,

The Sum paid to Gundry & Co ^<1> in April was £300 – & I have paid up to this time, £150 by Instalments to M^r Strong ^<2> –

I expect to be here the whole of Saturday Even^g & if you have half an Hour’s Leisure, you will perhaps allow me to see you, I shall be either in the hay field or the Village –

I am much pleased to find that the Materials of the useless part of M^r Mortimer’s Copyhold w^ch we are pulling down will be sufficient to pay for repairing the House &c – without touching the £65 – rec^d for delapidations

I am Dear Sir y^r obliged Ser^t
W. H. Awdry

P.S. In case you have any time to spare to morrow at Chippenham, I will stay at my office during the day –

W. H. F. Talbot Esq

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Notes:

1. Gundrey & Co.

2. Strong's identity has yet to be established. However, Awdry met Mr. Strong at Box [see Doc. No: 02006], the Wiltshire hamlet whose quarry originally provided Lacock Abbey with its stone. It is possible that Strong was there temporarily to select stone for the renovations at Lacock Abbey, but given the expansion of the area in the 19^th c., perhaps Strong was resident there. The 1841 census for Box (the earliest one available) points to two possibilities. The first, James Strong (b. 1796), was a mason, but the Lacock mason, Charles Selman Banks (1805-1881) did most of the masonry at Lacock at this time. Thomas Strong (b. 1781) was a builder, and seems the more likely candidate.