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Document number: 1728
Date: Tue 21 Oct 1828
Postscript: 22 Oct from Melbury
Recipient: TALBOT William Henry Fox
Author: GAISFORD Henrietta Horatia Maria, née Feilding
Collection: British Library, London, Manuscripts - Fox Talbot Collection
Collection number historic: LA28-83
Last updated: 27th September 2012

Moreton <1>
Tuesday 21st October –

Carissimo Fratello <2>

I received a letter <3> from you before I left Carclew, <4> which I was very thankful for as it was the only answer I have yet had to the many I have written. We left Carclew last week & went to Lord Falmouth’s <5> at Tregothnan for a day – it is a most beautiful place, almost surrounded by estuaries & creeks with woods down to the waters edge. We passed the whole day in riding, driving & rowing on the river which is quite shut in by the hills so that it looks like a Swiss lake. Lord Falmouth is very tiresome indeed, but good-natured & plays very well on the violoncello – Lady F. is very amiable & put me a good deal in mind of Wm Bankes. <6> There was nobody there but Sir R. Vyvyan <7> who invited us to visit him at Trelowarren the next time we go into Cornwall as his house is repairing. They say he is very clever – he seems to have very odd opinions on most subjects. I was quite dismal at leaving Sir Charles <8> – he was so very good & kind to us – we wanted very much to persuade him to come with us into Dorsetshire which he would have done had he not been expecting Aunt Mary <9> very soon at Carclew – I have still some faint hopes that she may put it off a little longer & then he will come to Melbury. <10> Our first day’s journey was through the most dreary country you can conceive, over Bodmin Moor which Mama <11> says is like an Irish bog. We stopped only at Launceston to see the castle which was built by the Phenicians [sic] & unlike any one I ever saw. The next day we were proceeding quietly to Moreton, thinking we should arrive there just in time to go to bed & dreadfully tired, when on stopping to change horses at Longbeedy[?] Hut we received a note from Henry, <12> to entreat us to stop at Dorchester & go to the Sessions Ball of which he was Steward – We were very much amused at this unexpected invitation, received at so odd a place & though we were so tired we could hardly get upstairs, we unpacked dressed & went to the ball at the King’s Arms & danced till 4 in the morning after having travelled from 7. I was delighted to see Aunt Harriet <13> & my cousins after such a long separation –

Melbury –
Wednesday 22nd

We came here yesterday from Moreton – Here are Lord & Lady Belmore & all the Corrys. <14> I was rather glad to see them at last after having heard so much of them – Lord & Ly B. are waiting for a fair wind to go to Jamaica – is it not inconceivable that he should wish to s’expatrier, <15> at his age & with his bad health – particularly to such a place as Jamaica. I pity poor Ly B. very much – she dreads it extremely but yet appears in very good spirits. Colonel Strangways <16> is here too looking as well as ever. Melbury is in great beauty – I had not seen it with the trees leaves on the trees for many many years – I believe & it looks quite different. – We made a very nice expedition from Moreton to Lulworth Cove – I went on horseback with Louisa <17> & sundry gentlemen friends of Henry’s. we were in all 8 riders which was very amusing – We lunched on the beach in the Cove. It was a most beautiful day like October in Italy. Louisa has been very ill for some time but is much better now & is even allowed to dance. Poor Papa <18> has had a return of the pain in his foot – he thinks it is not gout but rheumatism. Our coughs are almost entirely gone – owing I suppose to riding<19> & the air of Cornwall. – We are to go back from here to Mor[eton] about the 1st of Novr I wish you could come there too – It would so very pleasant, & my Aunt & Cousins would be so delighted. I believe Kit <20> is coming there soon. Addio Enrico carissimo <21> – I send this to Brighton to wait for you –

Your very affte sister
Horatia.

Caroline <22> thanks you for your letter <23> of the 3rd. She has finished all the vignettes at last which I am very glad of.

Dorchester Octr twenty two 1828 Belmore
Henry Fox Talbot Esqre
Post Office
Brighton


Notes:

1. Moreton, Dorset: home of the Frampton family.

2. Dearest brother.

3. Possibly Doc. No: 01717.

4. Carclew, Cornwall, 3 mi N of Penryn: seat of Sir Charles Lemon.

5. Edward Boscawen, 1st Earl Falmouth (1787–1841). [See Doc. No: 01714].

6. Probably William John Bankes (1786–1855), politician.

7. Sir Richard Hussey Vivian (1775–1842), politician.

8. Sir Charles Lemon (1784–1868), politician & scientist; WHFT’s uncle.

9. Lady Mary Lucy Cole, née Strangways, first m. Talbot (1776–1855), WHFT’s aunt.

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

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

12. Henry Frampton (1804-1879).

13. Lady Harriet Frampton, née Fox Strangways (d. 1844) .

14. Somerset Lowry-Corry, 2nd Earl Belmore (1774–1841), Governor of Jamaica, and his wife, Lady Juliana, Countess Belmore, née Butler (1783-1861).

15. Become an expatriate.

16. Lt. Col. Hon. Stephen Strangways Digby Fox-Strangways(1751– 12 March 1836), brother of the 2nd Earl and therefore uncle to Lady Elisabeth.

17. Possibly Louisa Charlotte Frampton.

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

19. Text torn away under seal.

20. Christopher Rice Mansel Talbot (1803–1890), immensely wealthy landowner, mathematician & politician; WHFT’s Welsh cousin.

21. Goodbye dearest Henry.

22. Caroline Augusta Edgcumbe, née Feilding, Lady Mt Edgcumbe (1808–1881); WHFT’s half-sister.

23. Letter not located.

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