Mount Edgcumbe <1>
Devonport
Thursday Decr 6th 1860
My dear Henry
I was so glad to hear from you the other day & should have answered your letter sooner, had I not had great arrears of correspondence to make up. Today I heard from Amandier <2> – Her letter is of the 28th Novr but it came here when I was at Cotehele <3> & went about to various Post Offices, before coming back to me again here. From what she says I conclude you are still at Laycock Abbey – & I wish very much you could contrive to pay me a visit before going North. Can you not manage it? It is ages since you have been here, at this house. We intend staying till the beginning of January so any time between this & then would suit me. Lord Mt E. <4> is still in London, & I imagine we shall join him there in January. Flora <5> is with him, & Charlie <6> is in the Tower – so that he can go constantly to see his Father – though it is a good step from the Tower to Belgravia. I suppose a house must be taken before we can all go up. I think, from what I can gather, that he is a little better for Dr Bence Jones’s <7> treatment – & he sees quantities of people. He saw Count Apponyi <8> on his return from Plymouth – & since that Ct de Flahault. <9> I hope you received two Western Morning News I sent you – containing accounts of the Prince of Wales’s arrival, & that of the Empress of Austria. Val <10> went on board the Rl Yacht, & lunched with the Empress. It was agreed she should land & drive round Mt Edgcumbe, so we sent down carriages & Val rode at the portière, She came into the house & had some tea – but did not dare stay long, as Captain Denman was fidgetting to get her away, He was afraid of the cold for her, & felt himself responsible no doubt. She coughed a great deal, but did not look ill. She is very tall & handsome, with a brilliant complexion, sparkling dark eyes, & dark eyebrows. She was quite well at sea – but her 3 poor ladies were very ill on the way here. What they must have suffered, poor things, in that terrific gale, tossing about in the Bay of Biscay!
I guessed by your black border that poor Constance had lost her Sister <11> – & Amandier confirms my conjecture. Though she did not see much of her, it must be a sad blow, losing the last – & Amandier tells me she has been very unhappy.
Now do, dear Henry, ponder my request – & come & see me please. I want to introduce Katie <12> to you – & my dear little grand daughter – the sweetest tempered thing you ever saw! – We have still Crysanthemums & Calceolarias lingering out of the doors – & everything looks very green still.
Are you not provoked at the Chinese having captured Mr Parkes & the Times Correspondent? <13> Captain Key <14> will be very much vexed. He liked Mr Parkes & had such a high opinion of him. Val & Katie heard some amusing stories at Port Eliot the other day – from Ld St Germans, & his Son Charles Eliot. <15> Amongst other things they noticed particularly Charles Eliot’s uniform (Grenadier Guards) which he appeared in at some Ball – especially the Bearskin Cap. He is a very tall youth – & the paper said that with his cap on he looked superhuman – & that one saw at a glance that he belonged to the crack London Corps, as if he was a Volunteer! This is too late for today’s Post. I shall so much like to see your Sun engravings<16> – & also Your Nineveh Studies. Now do come dear Henry – This is such a nice opportunity – & life sho short!
Yr affte Sister
Caroline
[envelope:]
to be forwarded
Henry Fox Talbot Esqre
Laycock Abbey
Chippenham
Notes:
1. Mt Edgecumbe, near Plymouth: seat of the Earl of Mt Edgcumbe
2. Amélina Petit De Billier, ‘Mamie’, ‘Amandier’ (1798–1876), governess and later close friend of the Talbot family [See Amélina's journal].
3. Cotehele, Cornwall: ancient house, seat of the Earl of Mt Edgcumbe, now a National Trust Property
4. Ernest Augustus Edgcumbe, Lord Valletort, 3rd Earl of Mt Edgcumbe (1797–1861), WHFT’s brother-in-law.
5. Caroline's husband's niece through his sister, Lady Caroline Sophia Edgcumbe (d. 10 April 1824), who was the first wife of Reginald George Macdonald (d. 1873): The Honorable Flora Isabella Clementina (1822-1899) was Maid of Honor and later Woman of the Bedchamber to Queen Victoria.
6. Charles Earnest Edgcumbe (1838–1915), JP, WHFT’s nephew.
7. Henry Bence Jones (1814–1873), physician and chemist.
8. Count György Apponyi, politician.
9. Count de Flahault, father of Emily Jane Mercer Elphinstone de Flahault, 2nd wife of Lord Shelburne.
10. William Henry Edgcumbe, ‘Val’, 4th Earl Mt Edgcumbe (1832–1917), JP & Ld Steward of the Royal Household; WHFT’s nephew ‘Bimbo’.
11. Constance Talbot, née Mundy (1811–1880), WHFT’s wife. Her sister was Marian Gilder, née Mundy (1806 – 14 October 1860); m. 6 August 1844 William Troward Gilder (d. 1871), Army Surgeon (ret).
12. Lady Katherine Elizabeth Edgcumbe, née Hamilton (1840–1874), wife of William Henry Edgcumbe; married, in 1858, to William Henry Edgcumbe.
13. Sir Harry Smith Parkes (1828–1885), diplomatist. Thomas William Bowlby (1817–1860), Times correspondent; captured by Tartar general San-ko-lin-sin and died from the effects of ill-treatment.
14. Sir Astley Cooper Key (1821–1888), admiral; in 1857, he went out to China, commanding a batallion of the naval brigade at the capture of Canton in December of that year.
15. Edward Granville Eliot (1798–1877), diplomatist; succeeded as 3rd Earl of St. Germans, 1845.
16. WHFT's Photoglyphic Engravings, a pioneering form of photogravure.
17. Another niece of her husband's: in 1848, Annie Sarah (sometimes Sarah Anne) married Alfredo Salvatori Ruggioro Andrea, Baron Porceilli di Sant Andrea, a Sicilian nobleman and revolutionary commander.