My dear Henry
I had not arrived at Cowes 20 minutes before your letter & so you see that I comply with your request of answering immediately - I said very true in my former letter that I was leaving Penrice <1> for Cowes but I did not mean to insinuate that we should touch at no other port & as the season was rainy & bad & Kit, <2> the only original object of my wishes to come here, being engaged in Wales We amused ourselves by the way I spent a week very pleasantly at Kilmington from which I made several horticultural expeditions & saw a great abundance of new things and Mr Selwyn's <3> collection is very good & most nicely attended to by himself. then we also paid Isabella a visit & Dr Fowler, & Sir Chrisr <4> went up to the Levée to kiss hands on his promotion & so you see by degrees we arrived here & have a bow or bay window that overlooks the Harbour & Sir C: is seated at it and swallowing the sea air by gallons. what would we have given for a few mouthfuls this last week when it was so oppressively hot that we could not move till it was almost dark. Six weeks Sir C: intends to stay here, but we do not intend to stay in one place - we are going in a few days to see a friend near Lymington for a few days & also to go round the Island for a few days. but none of my anticipations lead me to think of sailing in the Yachts Emma <5> & Sir Chrisr will enjoy that, but Mary & I shall remain at home. If Lily <6> comes I shall be delighted to see her but the accommodations are on so diminitive [sic] a scale here that a sailor must have been the architec[t]<7> I do not know what she will do without She goes to the hotel next door to us. Your party could then breakfast & dine with me us in the bay window - the only temptation I can offer. Tho' they tell me we are the wrong side of the water being at East instead of West Cowes - My Brother is not here but the sailors in the harbour say he is expected from Weymouth or Guernsey. I have not been here long enough to make any further enquiries - I saw a magnificent pyramid of Campanula lactiflora at the Nursury garden at Warminster which was beautiful & the whole garden a blase of beauty - We think of residing at Clifton <8> or Bath for some time - I am better in health tho' often suffering from bilious headachs [sic] - Sir C: has determined that I shall have acres or garden wherever we go.
I have just found out the hotel this side the water is bankrupt
East Cowes
2d August
from your affe Aunt
Mary L. Cole
W. H. F. Talbot Esqr
Lacock Abbey
Chippenham
Wilts
Notes:
1. Penrice Castle and Penrice House, Gower, Glamorgan, 10 mi SW of Swansea: home of Christopher Rice Mansel Talbot.
2. Christopher Rice Mansel Talbot (1803-1890), immensely wealthy landowner, mathematician & politician; WHFT's Welsh cousin.
3. Rev Townshend Selwyn (1783-1853), botanist, Vicar of Kilmington, Somerset, and Canon of Gloucester.
4. Richard Fowler (1765-1863), physician, and Sir Christopher Cole (1770-1836), Captain, MP & naval officer.
5. Emma Thomasina Llewelyn, née Talbot (1806-1881), photographer; WHFT's Welsh cousin.
6. Lady Elisabeth Theresa Feilding, née Fox Strangways, first m Talbot (1773-1846), WHFT's mother.
7. Text torn away under seal.
8. Clifton, Bristol, on the Avon Gorge.