Mount Edgcumbe
Sunday Feby 3rd
1867
My dear Henry
I was delighted to hear from you once more – especially as your letter <1> contained such good news. I am so glad Matilda <2> has got so well & quickly over her troubles – for I think before this she had not been very well. You must have been surprized in the morning to hear you had got another little grand daughter. Please thank Rosamond <3> for her nice letter received this morning. I am extremely pleased to find that she likes the earings. Will you tell her, with my love, that the Jeweller who made them undertakes to fit his patent invention to any earings – & is particularly proud of the safety it imparts to the most valuable ones – diamond or pearl; so that she could have any of hers altered if she likes. I will send her his address.
I am afraid we have quite given up Cannes for this winter – for the simple reason that I cannot afford the journey – for I have some how spent more than I ought this year – & therefore prudence tells us to remain quietly at home. It is a great disappointmt to us, & to Val <4> too – & it is unlucky this year – as the Abercorns <5> cannot be there, (at any rate not till after St Patrick’s day,) & we could have lodged in their house.
I should like very much to spend next summer abroad too – but we must be content with London instead – & next winter also, I should like to go –. Naples wd never do for Katie, <6> I fancy – it is very cold & windy in the winter. Val made an expedition up the Var lately – to a village called Le Broe, perched most picturesquely on a rock high above the river, in an amphitheatre of hills, shut in all round by snow peaks, really magnificent!
Katie had had a cold – but was better again, & gone out in the boat – which she certainly never could have attempted here. I think Berne a charming spot for head quarters in the Summer. I never can forget our séjour there if former happy days.
I suppose you saw in the papers the death of Sir John Shelley? <7> Mr & Mrs Edgcumbe <8> were telegraphed for to Maresfield – & are still there. His estate goes to his daughter & only child. Also my poor friend Lady Devon <9> died last week – a great loss to her husband & daughter – & now poor old Lady Jersey! <10> I somehow felt as if this event could never happen. She had lived so long, & always sociable & agreable – & I remember her from the time I was 4 years old. She was a link with a former generation.
Will you tell Rosamond that Ernestine is very sorry not to have yet answered her letter yet – She actually was going to do so today – but finding I was writing, thought it better to put it off a little longer. This has really been the case several times.
Yr affte
Sister Caroline
[envelope:]
Henry Fox Talbot, Esqre
13 Great Stuart Street
Edinburgh
N. B.
Notes:
1. Letter not located.
2. Matilda Caroline Gilchrist-Clark, ‘Tilly’, née Talbot (1839–1927), WHFT’s 3rd daughter.
3. Rosamond Constance ‘Monie’ Talbot (1837–1906), artist & WHFT’s 2nd daughter.
4. William Henry Edgcumbe, ‘Val’, 4th Earl Mt Edgcumbe (1832–1917), JP & Ld Steward of the Royal Household; WHFT’s nephew ‘Bimbo’.
5. Louisa Jane Hamilton, née Russell, Lady Abercorn (1812-1905), widow of James Hamilton, 1st Duke of Abercorn (1811-1845) and some of their fourteen children.
6. Lady Katherine Elizabeth Edgcumbe, née Hamilton (1840–1874), wife of William Henry Edgcumbe.
7. Sir John Shelley, father of Fanny Lucy Edgcumbe.
8. Probably George Edgcumbe (1800–1882), and his wife Fanny Lucy Edgcumbe, née Shelley.
9. Elizabeth Fortescue, Lady Devon (1801–1867), wife of William Reginald Courtenay, 30th Earl of Devon. She died on 29 January 1867.
10. Sarah Sophia Villiers, née Fane, Lady Jersey (1785–1867).