[this is written on the same sheet as a note from Caroline - see Doc. No: 02051]
Laycock Abbey
10th September
It was very lucky you left the models & drawing with Mamma, <1> as Mr Strong <2> wanted them when he was here to–day, & asked Wright <3> for them, who could not be comforted & said they were not. <4>
N.B. There were 130 prints. to be sold yesterday in London at 2 & twopence a piece – it was a pity you were not there to buy some!Orazia
W. H. Fox Talbot Esqre
Post Office
Leamington
Warwickshire
Worcester <5>
Notes:
1. Lady Elisabeth Theresa Feilding, née Fox Strangways, first m Talbot (1773–1846), WHFT’s mother.
2. Strong's identity has yet to be established. However, Awdry met Mr. Strong at Box [see Doc. No: 02006], the Wiltshire hamlet whose quarry originally provided Lacock Abbey with its stone. It is possible that Strong was there temporarily to select stone for the renovations at Lacock Abbey, but given the expansion of the area in the 19th c., perhaps Strong was resident there. The 1841 census for Box (the earliest one available) points to two possibilities. The first, James Strong (b. 1796), was a mason, but the Lacock mason, Charles Selman Banks (1805-1881) did most of the masonry at Lacock at this time. Thomas Strong (b. 1781) was a builder, and seems the more likely candidate.
3. James Wright, footman to the Talbots & Constable for Lacock.
4. Paraphrase of St. Matthew 2:18 – ‘… Rachel weeping for her children, and would not be comforted, because they are not.’
5. Readdressed in another hand.