My dear Sir,
Allow me to offer my most sincere Congratulations upon your Marriage <1> and also upon being elected a Member of Parliament. These two happy Events, following near each other, afford your Friends a double Gratification. - Yourself, Heathcote & Egerton <2> have been fortunate, but my other Pupils, who were in the last Parliament, Ponsonby & Martin Smith, <3> are not elected. -
Arnold <4> of Lyndon is gone to London, and I am to serve his Church next Sunday: It is reported he is about to publish. He succeeds very well with his Pupils. -
Porter <5> is at South-Luffenham: I dined with him not long since, and he talked with me about you and your Offer to him.
Mr George Finch <6> I have seen several Times lately, but not Lady Louisa. <7> My Sister was from Home when she called here. -
Believe me, my dr Sir, Yr's ever faithfully,
T. K. Bonney
Normanton nr Stamford,
Decr 27. 1832
[envelope:]
W. Henry Fox Talbot Esq M.P.
Laycock Abbey
Chippenham
Notes:
1. WHFT married Constance Mundy (1811-1880) on 20th December 1832.
2. Sir Gilbert John Heathcote, 5th Baronet (1795-1867), MP, sat for Boston from 1820 to 1831, and for Lincolnshire from 1832 to 1841; probably William Tatton Egerton (1806-1883), MP, sat for Cheshire N. from 1832 until 1858.
3. Probably the Hon J.G.B Ponsonby, Lord Duncannon (1809-1880), sat for Bletchingly in 1831 and returned in 1835 when he sat for Derby; Martin Tucker Smith (b. 1808), MP, sat for Midhurst in 1831 and returned for Wycombe in 1847.
4. Rev Thomas Kerchever Arnold (1800-1853), editor & author.
5. Charles Porter (1797-1877), fellow Cambridge student with WHFT and clergyman.
6. George Finch (1794-1870), JP & MP.
7. Lady Louisa Somerset, wife of George Finch.