Bowood <1>
Monday Evg
My Dear Henry
What is that magnificent Planet that is now setting in the West?
Would it be any convenience to you if I was to write to Caroline <2> to try to persuade her to come to us at the Abbey before she comes here? She is expected here next Saturday. She has found Woburn Abbey so very pleasant that she has staid longer than she intended. Louisa <3> wishes it all to remain as it is, but then she is not aware that it makes any difference to you, indeed perhaps it does not.
In case Nicole <4> is coming to do the Laocoon this is to tell you that it is locked up in Wright’s <5> care, till its Glass shade arrives. Horatia <6> went after breakfast with Shelburne <7> to Bath, & is not yet come back tho’ its quite dark. They did not go by railway but in his carriage, not to be gênés <8> by hours & minutes –
Affly yours
E F
I hope you have taken particular care of the 4 picked numbers that were for the Queen <9> Being choisis <10> I should like to have them
[envelope:]
H. F. Talbot Esr
Laycock Abbey
Chippenham
Notes:
1. Bowood House, nr Calne, Wiltshire, 5 mi NE of Lacock: seat of the Marquess of Lansdowne.
2. Caroline Augusta Edgcumbe, née Feilding, Lady Mt Edgcumbe (1808–1881); WHFT’s half-sister.
3. Probably Louisa Howard, née Fitzmaurice (d. 1906), daughter of Lady Louisa Emma Fitzmaurice.
4. Nicolaas Henneman (1813–1898), Dutch, active in England; WHFT’s valet, then assistant; photographer.
5. James Wright, footman to the Talbots & Constable for Lacock.
6. Henrietta Horatia Maria Gaisford, née Feilding (1810–1851), WHFT’s half-sister.
7. Sir Henry Petty Fitzmaurice, Lord Shelburne, 4th Marquess of Lansdowne (1816–1866), MP and WHFT's cousin.
8. Bothered.
9. Victoria (1819–1901), Queen of the United Kingdom (1837–1901), Empress of India (1876–1901).
10. Choice.