[this is written on the same sheet as a note from Horatia - see Doc. No: 04789]
Laycock Abbey
10th September
My dear Henry
We are very much surprised you have not written to any of us, as you have been gone nearly a week. – I suppose you imagined we were at Salisbury, where we did not go after all; Papa <1> staid with us instead till Thursday morning, when he set off in a miserable drizzling rain.
Aunt Harriot <2> has put off coming here till Monday or Tuesday, which disappointed us extremely, though I own I did not think it in the nature of things she should come the day she intended, if she had she would not have been a true Strangways
Mr Strong <3> came today at last. He says it is impossible to put the fireplace in the gallery where you intended. The space is one foot too short. He strongly advises it to be put in the angle, as suitable to the character of the house, & as you don’t like to have it on the north side, (because of being too far from the light) he says that is the only place for it, & he is sure of making a job of it that will please you.
We all think it will be better there, & not only better, but remarkably pleasant, because we can sit by the fire & have light at the same time. Tomorrow there is no post, so I thought it better to write to you to-day, because he seems to have no thoughts of doing so himself. He told Mamma <4> he had not time to write letters, & that if he kept clerks he should be obliged to charge his customers higher. He says he makes his own drawings & does everything himself, which enables him to work cheaper for his employers. Pray write us some news to enliven our solitude
& believe me your very affectionate Sister
Caroline
W. H. Fox Talbot Esqre
Post Office
Leamington
Warwickshire
Worcester <5>
Notes:
1. Rear Admiral Charles Feilding (1780–1837),
2. Lady Harriet Frampton, née Fox Strangways (d. 1844) .
3. Strong's identity has yet to be established. However, Awdry met Mr. Strong at Box [see Doc. No: 02006], the Wiltshire hamlet whose quarry originally provided Lacock Abbey with its stone. It is possible that Strong was there temporarily to select stone for the renovations at Lacock Abbey, but given the expansion of the area in the 19th c., perhaps Strong was resident there. The 1841 census for Box (the earliest one available) points to two possibilities. The first, James Strong (b. 1796), was a mason, but the Lacock mason, Charles Selman Banks (1805-1881) did most of the masonry at Lacock at this time. Thomas Strong (b. 1781) was a builder, and seems the more likely candidate.
4. Lady Elisabeth Theresa Feilding, née Fox Strangways, first m Talbot (1773–1846), WHFT’s mother.
5. Readdressed in another hand.