Moreton <1>
Thursday evening
My dear Henry
I forgot to tell you there is a mine of books in the inner room at Stinsford <2> tho' perhaps you knew it. I am not sure whether any to your taste, tho' there are many there to mine. Tu vois que je m'occupe de toi. <3> You both looked very winterish as we parted from you, winding your way along that dreary heath fit haunt for the Witches in Macbeth. This is the most chearful house I have been in since I returned to England, they somehow contrive by dint of animal spirits to exclude the gloom of the climate which penetrates into our Constitutions & is edacious <4>of all our pleasures
Adio carissimo <5> If you have nothing else to do you may as well write to Mr M.
William Henry Fox Talbot Esqr
Lady Susan O'Brien's
Stinsford
Notes:
1. Moreton, Dorset: home of the Frampton family.
2. Stinsford House, Dorset, home of Lady Susannah Sarah Louisa O'Brien, née Strangways (1743-1827), WHFT's great aunt.
3. You see that I look after you.
4. Voracious.
5. Goodbye dearest.