Mt Edgcumbe <1>
Saturday Septr 7th 1844
My dear Henry
I wish you would think better of it, & come & see us at the same time as Mamma & Lord Aukland <2> – I think you would find it a pleasant party, & one that would suit you, as you know the Bonnevals <3> & all of them so well. I should think you might manage to make Calotypes even in company, if you brought one of your own people to help you – Particularly in our Italian climate, you wd have fewer obstacles than you generally meet with – But if you think you could not do it conveniently I would advise you to leave all your Photographic cares behind you for a while, & come & enjoy this lovely place while it is still in it’s [sic] summer beauty – Yesterday we had a sea fog, which occurs perhaps 2 or 3 times a year – it covered the whole place with a damp dense veil – so that Caroline & M. de B. could see nil. But today the sun has burst out again in it’s full glory – & from my window while I am writing I see actually a peep of the Mediterranean – the colour is really equally intense & brilliant. I am quite sure that a little trip here wd quite renovate you – so that your studies wd but profit the more from a short relâche <4> – & no time wd really be wasted – some new faces, or rather old ones unseen for a long time wd give you a fillip, & change yr ideas – & there are plenty of beautiful walks to fill your time & encourage you to take a little more exercise. Now ponder my words – do–[illegible] – you never can have a nicer opportunity, with Mamma & Horatia <5> – & please come –
Yr affte Sister
Caroline
[envelope:]
Henry Fox Talbot Esqre
Laycock Abbey
Chippenham
Notes:
1. Mt Edgecumbe, near Plymouth: seat of the Earl of Mt Edgcumbe.
2. Lady Elisabeth Theresa Feilding, née Fox Strangways, first m Talbot (1773–1846), WHFT’s mother, and George Eden, 1st Earl of Auckland (1784–1849), Governor General of India.
3. Count Lionel de Bonneval, and his wife Caroline, née Payne (d. 1858). [See Doc. No: 04677].
4. Relaxation.
5. Henrietta Horatia Maria Gaisford, née Feilding (1810–1851), WHFT’s half-sister.