Mount Edgcumbe <1>
Devonport.
Saturday Septr 28th 1872
My dear Henry
I have heard nothing from, or of, any one of you for ages! We came here on Thursday for 3 or 4 days. The Vals <2> had just returned from Casey Town, a house on the Moor, where Katie <3> has been staying for change of air during the hot weather – (if any we have had, deserves that name –) & on Tuesday we are due at Abbotsbury <4> – which I shall be much pleased to see again. I suppose we must start on Monday, as it is rather a long journey, & I don’t like early rising. The last time I saw Ab. was 12 years ago – when we were staying at Portland in the Yacht – but I have not stayed there, for more years than I can remember. You will be grieved to hear that I had a letter from Lady Gallwey <5> this morning, giving a very alarming account of poor Louisa. <6> She is with them at Thirkleby & has a very had attack of Bronchitis – She is so very weak that she can scarcely speak – tho’ I hope & believe she is in no pain; but Emily Gallwey <7> says she grows weaker & weaker – & that altho’ the doctor says he has seen persons recover who were quite as bad, they themselves have not the slightest hope. I am so very sorry! She has always been such a kind friend to me – more like a Sister than a Cousin.
I am intending to send you a plant of the Italian Jessamine you wished for – & I have desired the gardener to dig up some roots of the lilac & white Balm.
I now enclose a flower, leaf, & a few seeds of one
of the Acacia tribe, I have at Cotehele. <8>
In haste
Yr affte
Caroline
[envelope:]
Henry Fox Talbot
Esqre
Lacock Abbey
Chippenham
Notes:
1. Mt Edgecumbe, near Plymouth: seat of the Earl of Mt Edgcumbe.
2. William Henry Edgcumbe, ‘Val’, 4th Earl Mt Edgcumbe (1832–1917), JP & Ld Steward of the Royal Household; WHFT’s nephew ‘Bimbo’; and his 1st wife, Lady Katherine Elizabeth, née Hamilton (1840-1874).
3. Lady Katherine Elizabeth Edgcumbe, née Hamilton (1840–1874), wife of William Henry Edgcumbe.
4. Abbotsbury, Dorset: home of William Thomas Horner Fox Strangways.
5. Emily Anne, née Frankland-Russell (b. 1822), wife of Sir William Payne Gallwey, 2nd Bart (1807-1881).
6. Louisa Gallwey (1811-1872), dau of Lt Gen Sir William Payne Gallwey, 1st Bart (1759-1831) and Lady Harriet Payne Gallwey (1784-1845), née Quin - see Doc. No: 09913.
7. Lady Emily Anna Payne-Gallwey.
8. Cotehele, Cornwall: ancient house, seat of the Earl of Mt Edgcumbe, now a National Trust Property.