The Winter Villa
Stonehouse
Plymouth
Sunday June 24th 1855
My dear Henry
I ought to have written a day or two ago to acknowledge the safe arrival of your four magnificently bound volumes on the Crystal Palace, <1> & to thank you in Milord’s <2> name for sending him so splendid a present. I now however take the first breathing moment I have had since their arrival, to do so, & to tell you how very kind Milord thought it was of you to give him one of the copies, which he had not forgotten you promised him some time ago. The binding is the most beautiful I ever saw, & the work itself is an excellent memento of the Great Exhibition – but I scarcely think the Talbotypes themselves do justice to what may be achieved by your Art, & even has been long ago, in some of your own earlier productions. What is the reason of this? Who did them? not Henneman, <3> was it?
The box arrived on the 21st I think – the very day on which Ernestine <4> & I & a detachment moved into this house, baggage, furniture & all – You may imagine the confusion & bustle that reigned all that day, going perpetually to & fro between the two houses – & tho’ we unpacked the books the same evening, this unsettled state of things continued till last night, (& in fact is not over yet,) so that I have not been able to sit down quietly to write till this minute.
The reason why we have been so long getting into the new house was that we could not get the masons & carpenters out – & at last it was only by actually invading the premises that we succeeded in partially ejecting them. The papering & finishing off remain still to be done, as soon as we depart again. This is really a most lovely spot! & nothing can look more beautiful than the little bay with Mount Edgcumbe <5> opposite – whether in the morning or evening light, or by that of the moon. I long to shew it to you.
What a sad reverse of affairs this is at Sebastopol. <6> Our loss seems to be most grievous – Poor Col Yea <7> we knew very well – He was a most gallant soldier, & his loss will be much felt.
Captn Key <8> writes from the Baltic, what a narrow escape the Merlin & Firefly had from those detestable infernal machines. The French Admiral & nearly all the English Captains on board –
My love to all – & please thank Amandier <9> very much for her last letter & enclosure –
Yrs affly
Caroline
Notes:
1. Designed by Sir Joseph Paxton (1801 – 1865) and erected in Hyde Park, London, 1850– 1851, to accommodate the Great Exhibition of 1851. It was later moved to Sydenham Hill, South London, where a larger Crystal Palace was reopened in 1854.
2. Ernest Augustus Edgcumbe, Lord Valletort, 3rd Earl of Mt Edgcumbe (1797–1861), WHFT’s brother-in-law.
3. Nicolaas Henneman (1813–1898), Dutch, active in England; WHFT’s valet, then assistant; photographer.
4. Ernestine Emma Horatia Edgcumbe (1843-1925), WHFT’s niece.
5. Mt Edgecumbe, near Plymouth: seat of the Earl of Mt Edgcumbe.
6. Siege of Sebastopol, 1854–1855.
7. Lacy Walter Giles Yea (1808–1855).
8. Sir Astley Cooper Key (1821–1888), admiral.
9. Amélina Petit De Billier, ‘Mamie’, ‘Amandier’ (1798–1876), governess and later close friend of the Talbot family [See Amélina's journal].