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Document number: 2238
Date: 05 Oct 1831
Recipient: TALBOT William Henry Fox
Author: EDGCUMBE Caroline Augusta, née Feilding
Collection: British Library, London, Manuscripts - Fox Talbot Collection
Last updated: 16th December 2010

Laycock Abbey
5th October 1831

My dear Henry

I am very grateful to you for having at last condescended to take notice of a letter I wrote you I don’t know how long ago. In your next I request you will give me an explanation of your mysterious conduct which was beginning to make us uneasy. The Gents <1> are still here, singing delightfully every evening; Charry & Mr Traherne <2> came yesterday from Cannes where they left my Aunt tolerably well; they were in their usual hurry to get home, & therefore left us again this morning, after having just given themselves time to look at the Cloister. – Skipton Castle <3> is a very curious building – if you go into the triangular court you will recognise my sketch. – Papa <4> begs if you have time, that you will try & find out some carpenter at Skipton who was ordered to make two chairs for him on the model of an old one at Askham Hall <5> near Lowther; he wishes to know if he ever received the order from Mr Jackson, the Clergyman at Askham, & if so whether he ever means to execute it.– We have charming weather, the finest September I ever saw in England; it has produced me a fine crop of Gran Tureo, which gives me pleasing recollections; the Amaryllis lutea? that you gave us is in flower & the double larkspur is going to blow for the second time. You cannot imagine how well the gallery looks, & almost too hot without a fire. I am sorry to tell you that the top part of the shaft of the dining room chimney is likely to fall in the first hurricane. Mr Strong <6> has examined it & thinks the cause of the decay is smoke, but we think it is the ivy which has forced the stones inwards & crumbled them away; it looks pericolosso, <7> but luckily nobody sleeps under it; & still more so it will be une affaire de rien <8> to build it again. Horatia <9> wrote you a letter yesterday directed to Markeaton, do not be so long again without writin[g] <10> It makes Mama <11> uneasy, & you should consider that when she is nervous she is always ill – Addio caro fratellino ti abbraccio tenenemente <12>

tua sorella affezionatissima <13>
Carolina

Henry Fox Talbot Esqr
Post Office
[Newark?] Skipton
Nottinghamshire Yorkshire
31 Sackville Street
London


Notes:

1. See Doc. No: 02136.

2. Charlotte Louisa 'Charry' Traherne, née Talbot (1800–1880), WHFT’s cousin, and Rev John Montgomerie Traherne (1788–1860), JP, antiquary & author.

3. Yorkshire.

4. Rear Admiral Charles Feilding (1780–1837), Royal Navy; WHFT’s step-father.

5. Cumbria.

6. 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.

7. Dangerous.

8. No problem.

9. Henrietta Horatia Maria Gaisford, née Feilding (1810–1851), WHFT’s half-sister.

10. Text obscured under seal.

11. Lady Elisabeth Theresa Feilding, née Fox Strangways, first m Talbot (1773–1846), WHFT’s mother.

12. Good bye dear brother, with tender kisses.

13. Your affectionate sister.

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