Laycock Abbey
23rd September
My dear Henry
We are just returned from a visit to Compton Bassett where we went yesterday to dine & sleep I had never been there since the ball. The place looked very pretty particularly that magnificent avenue of beeches. Mr & Lady Caroline Maxse (a daughter of Lord Berkeley!) <1> & two or three other people were there - I like Mrs Heneage <2> very much - She had also asked you but we made your excuses.
Aunt Mary <3> came here Saturday & went away Monday. I thought her looking much better. They were going to Pentline in their way to Penrice <4> & talk of coming to Bath in the winter, & making us a longer visit then. Aunt Mary was charmed with the yellow Pinks & pink Gladiolus & took some Primula away with her to plant in her garden. She says we have a great many treasures that we neglect & do not seem to be aware of. Aunt Harriet <5> leaves town to-day to return to Moreton <6> - the wedding <7> is to take place the 4th Octr - I received your nice long letter from Doncaster yesterday - it was a good idea of yours going to the Worcester music meeting & I am glad it turned out so amusing. I am exceedingly surprised to see that Priam has not won the St Leger <8> - is not everybody? There seem to be quantities of people there one knows so I hope you will find it gay but this weather must be wretched for races. - They are getting on very fast with the window - Mama <9> has long tête à têtes with Mr Strong <10> whenever he comes.
Mama has had a letter from Papa <11> from Versailles - Lady Robert <12> is setting off for Nice next week & he will come back about the 1st of Octr. He went to Canteleu<13> & saw the dear old gardener's wife who cried for joy on seeing him again. Addio caro <14> - write me word who you meet at Doncaster that I know, & all about it -
Your affte sister
Horatia
Mr Strong told Mama his whole history - she says it was quite romantic! You know sh[e] likes to talk to all sorts of people & hear their adventures - like William Bankes <15> -
C. received your letter with the description of Guy's Cliff.<16>
W. H. Fox Talbot Esqre
Post Office
Doncaster
Lacock Abbey <17>
Chippenham
Notes:
1. James Maxse (d. 1864) and Lady Caroline FitzHardinge Berkeley (1803-1886), daughter of Frederick Augustus Berkeley, 14th Lord and 5th Earl of Berkeley (1745-1810).
2. Mrs George Walker Heneage.
3. Lady Mary Lucy Cole, née Strangways, first m. Talbot (1776-1855), WHFT's aunt.
4. Penrice Castle and Penrice House, Gower, Glamorgan, 10 mi SW of Swansea: home of Christopher Rice Mansel Talbot.
5. Lady Harriet Frampton, née Fox Strangways (d. 1844).
6. Moreton, Dorset: home of the Frampton family.
7. Probably the wedding of Harriet Frampton to William Mundy, which actually took place on 28 October 1830.
8. Priam, the leading racehorse of the day, won the Derby at Epsom but lost at Doncastter.
9. Lady Elisabeth Theresa Feilding, née Fox Strangways, first m Talbot (1773-1846), WHFT's mother.
10. 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.
11. Rear Admiral Charles Feilding (1780-1837), Royal Navy; WHFT's step-father.
12. Lady Sophia Charlotte FitzGerald, née Feilding (d. 1834), Charles Feilding's sister.
13. Near Rouen.
14. Goodbye dear.
15. William John Bankes (1786-1855), politician.
16. near Warwick
17. Readdressed in another hand.