Downham
20th Sepr
My Dear Henry
It was very good of you to send for the Letter bag so late to write to me & take all that trouble. We immediately rectified the mistake with [Mihola?] I had begun to wonder that no Letters followed me. It is said that in Norfolk it never rains, but the first 3 days we were here it rained quite as incessantly as in the West of England. I have been to day to see Buckenham where Francis Baring <1> lives, who now [sic] at Paris with his wife. Horatia <2> has taken in a large dose of Music at Norwich & we made acquaintance with Mrs Stanley <3> the Bishop’s wife, who is a very agreeable woman. We met Lord Lansdowne <4> there he has been staying at the Palace all the week & Sir Edward Codrington. <5>
Lord L. is going afterwards to pay a round of visits in Suffolk & Northamptonshire. I have given Lady Wm Pawlett <6> the first No of the Pencil of Nature, <7> because she was craving for explanation having had the Sun Pictures in Scotland <8> to which she was a subscriber. She particularly wanted me to tell her why the buildings converged, & after I had explained she seemed still very incredulous as to its existing in nature, because she had never seen it in reality. I wish you could invent some improvement in Cameras that should avoid this désagrément. <9> We go Monday to Blickling & Wednesday to Garboldisham Hall, where you had better direct, & from whence they sent me your letter the very same day as Mr M. happened to come over here. I hope you have fine weather to enjoy Mount Edgcumbe <10>
affly yrs
E F
Pray tell Caroline <11> that all Friday we were at Norwich & so I could not answer her question & Saturday no post & after that it would be of no use as she has by this time acted on her own judgement (as she said she would) & she cannot do better – I will write to her from Blickling
Notes:
1. Francis Baring, 3rd Baron Ashburton (1800–1868), MP.
2. Henrietta Horatia Maria Gaisford, née Feilding (1810–1851), WHFT’s half-sister.
3. Catharine Stanley, née Leycestor.
4. Henry Petty Fitzmaurice, 3rd Marquess of Lansdowne (1780–1863), MP, WHFT’s uncle.
5. Sir Edward Codrington (1770–1851), admiral and liberal MP.
6. The wife of Lord William Paulet (1804–1893).
7. WHFT, The Pencil of Nature (London: Longman, Brown, Green, & Longmans, June 1844–April 1846 [issued in six fascicles])
8. WHFT, Sun Pictures in Scotland (London: Published by subscription in 1845).
9. Annoyance.
10. Mt Edgecumbe, near Plymouth: seat of the Earl of Mt Edgcumbe.
11. Caroline Augusta Edgcumbe, née Feilding, Lady Mt Edgcumbe (1808–1881); WHFT’s half-sister.