[written on the same sheet as a note from Lady Elisabeth - see Doc. No: 00221]
My dear Henry –
As you are likely to be a few days longer from Home than I expected, I may as well write you my opinion, that if you intend to have Blore <1> down to Lacock or any other architect for their [illegible deletion] ideas, it is high Time you should do so – it will take him some days to make his plans, & you many more to decide which you prefer, then to have the contract made, &c &c – by the first week in March the work ought to be in hand – This of course on the supposition that you intend to go on this year, for which [illegible deletion] there is no passing necessity –
You may leave it all as it is for another twelvemonth or – you may proceed with the room so as to make it habitable, or – you may finish the south Front exteriorly doing nothing to the interior of the new room, whichever you like – my own feeling – if you do anything at all – is to finish all the mason work of the south Front – that done – creepers, Trees, Flowers, Terrace &c &c might all go on steadily & uninterruptedly, & we could perfectly well do without inhabiting the new room for another year. The Thermometer is at 23 in Amandier & Carolines <2> room with the largest fire they can make – & 17 in the garden & in my room which is warmest water froze last night in the Jug.
God bless you
C.F.
25 Saturday
W. H. Fox Talbot Esqre
at Lady Mildmays <3>
Winchester
Notes:
1. Edward Blore (1787–1879), architect & artist.
2. Amélina Petit De Billier, ‘Mamie’, ‘Amandier’ (1798–1876), governess and later close friend of the Talbot family and Caroline Augusta Edgcumbe, née Feilding, Lady Mt Edgcumbe (1808–1881); WHFT’s half-sister.
3. Jane Dorthea Methuen, née Mildmay (1789–1846).