Friday

My Dear Henry

As there is no post tomorrow I write to say that in case you do not accept my offer of going up to town to chuse the Paper I think I shall make Wright ^<1> come down here Thursday to take care of us to Melbury, ^<2> for otherwise we shall have the trouble of paying the Post horses. In that case I will send John up to you Wednesday night – you will find him very steady & attentive & intelligent, & remarkably good <London?> servant, & I am sure will wait upon you comfortably.

I hope you will lend a willing ear to what Constance ^<3> is writing to you about, I should like the fame of the Abbey to be extended, it has been circumscribed by the circumstance of all ingress having been refused for so many years. The weather prevents Lord Mount Egcumbe ^<4> coming here tomorrow

Aff^ly Yours

EF

You can signify to Wright that he is to come down Thursday, in case I do not go up. Saturday we go to Melbury, I hope & believe there will be a Moon to light us on our way, for I dread the roads between Bruton & Sherborne. I have been out every day since this black frost & find it does me infinite good. All places are equally wholsome <sic> when the thermometer is below zero –

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Notes:

1. James Wright, footman to the Talbots & Constable for Lacock.

2. Melbury, Dorset: one of the Fox Strangways family homes; WHFT was born there.

3. Constance Talbot, née Mundy (1811–1880), WHFT’s wife.

4. Ernest Augustus Edgcumbe, Lord Valletort, 3rd Earl of Mt Edgcumbe (1797–1861), WHFT’s brother-in-law.