Wrotham <1>
Aug. 17th
Dear Henry
I received a nice long letter from you the other day which I had not time to answer till we left town. I was delighted to hear of Kit’s <2> winning the Regatta, & I think you were in very great luck to come in for it just at the right time. Uncle John <3> arrived in town Thursday & means I believe to set off for Ayrshire in the course of the week. The very last ball of the season was given by Lord Hertford <4> last Friday: it was very thin & ended early but I was very well amused. We are invited there next Thursday to see the fire-king, which I shall not regret having already seen him once. – We arrived here yesterday to dinner – the place looks beautifully green but it is so cold coming out of London that we have got fires. There is nobody at present but two old Miss Byngs his sisters who are very good-natured.
Tuesday 18th
We made an expedition yesterday to Hatfield which a [sic] most curious old house & full of interesting portraits – one of Charles the Twelfth <5> so exactly like Farren <6> in the play that I am sure he must have copied his costume from it. The architecture is something like Holland House, <7> & it is approached by an avenue of lime trees à perte de vue. <8> There is an immense & delightful room they call King James’s because there is a bronze statue of him over the mantelpiece, & an oak gallery 160 feet long, in which they acted the plays. They shewed us the hat Queen Elisabeth <9> had on when she received the news of Q. Mary’s death, <10> under an oak tree in the part which still remains, & a pair of yellow silk stockings the first that were made for her. – Captn & Mrs Ramsden <11> arrived here yesterday. We knew her in London 2 years ago as Harriet Byng & I remember she was the first person who came to our ball. – Pray write me word what is in flower in my garden & whether MacPhail <12> has planted anything in our potagers.
Your very affte Sister
Horatia
P.S. You are very mysterious in your account of your travels after you leave Laycock – & you do not inform us where you will be in your way to Penrice <13> I must enclose this to Sir Christopher <14> to wait for you there.
W. Henry Fox Talbot Esqre
Notes:
1. Wrotham Park, Hertfordshire, just outside London, built in 1754 for Adm John Byng.
2. Christopher Rice Mansel Talbot (1803–1890), immensely wealthy landowner, mathematician & politician; WHFT’s Welsh cousin.
3. John George Charles Fox Strangways (1803–1859), MP.
4. Francis Charles Seymour-Ingram, 3rd Marquis of Hertford (1777–1842).
5. Charles XII (1682–1718).
6. William Farren (1786–1861), actor.
7. Holland House, Kensington, London, built in 1605 by Sir Walter Cope.
8. As far as the eye can see.
9. Misspelling of Elizabeth I (1558–1603), Queen of England.
10. Queen Mary, or Mary Stuart (1542–1587). She was beheaded on 8th February 1587.
11. Harriet Frances Ramsden, née Byng and Captain Charles Ramsden.
12. John MacPhail, gardener.
13. Penrice Castle and Penrice House, Gower, Glamorgan, 10 mi SW of Swansea: home of Christopher Rice Mansel Talbot.
14. Sir Christopher Cole (1770–1836), Captain, MP & naval officer.