Farrance’s Hotel <1>
Wednesday Feby 7th 1855
My dear Henry
I do not know if you have been written to from Penrice <2> – If not you will be sadly grieved at the mournful news we received yesterday, of dear Aunt Mary’s <3> death, on Saturday evening last. She had not been at all ill till that day – & then she only complained of feeling a little sick – So that no one felt at all uneasy.
She was sitting by the fire at 6 o’clock in the evening, when she laid her head back in the chair, & they never could revive her again. Poor Mary’s letter to Christina Nicholl, <4> which I saw was most touching. What a peaceful end – So like her own self! We were going to Melbury tomorrow – but I got a telegraphic Message to put us off, (as I expected), as no doubt Uncle Harry <5> is going to Wales. Johnny Nicholl <6> is going from hence tomorrow also – Do not you think that they would like you to attend the funeral too? I pity poor Mary <7> so much – & James too, who is out of England – & it is so melancholy to think that the last of all our Aunts if gone! I must end, as I have much to do –
Yrs very affte
Caroline
Notes:
1. Farrance’s Hotel, Belgrave Street, London.
2. Penrice Castle and Penrice House, Gower, Glamorgan, 10 mi SW of Swansea: home of Christopher Rice Mansel Talbot.
3. Lady Mary Lucy Cole, née Strangways, first m. Talbot (1776–1855), WHFT’s aunt.
4. Christiana Judy Nicholl, of Merthyr Mawr.
5. Henry Stephen Fox Strangways, 3rd Earl of Ilchester (1787–1858).
6. John Cole Nicholl (b. 1832).
7. Mary Thereza Talbot (1795–1861), WHFT’s cousin.