Melbury <1>
Sunday Decr 23rd
My dearest Henry
I must now the happy event is over, congratulate you once more, & renew all my fervent wishes for your happiness, & that of your wife – I prayed for you both Thursday morning & tried to fancy myself present & longed so much to be there – I cannot tell you how I wish to see you & my new sister – I only hope she is as much prepared to like me as I am to love her. I hope we shall meet Thursday, & then Caroline <2> only will be wanting. I was delighted to get your first frank & shall ever keep it – We shall stay here till Wednesday, which I am very glad of, as all my cousins screamed at the idea or leaving Melbury Xmas Eve, & I have not spent a Xmas in Dorsetshire since my earliest infancy tho’ I always wished it.
Adieu dearest brother, give my love to Constance, <3> & believe me
ever your affte sister
Horatia
Notes:
1. Melbury, Dorset: one of the Fox Strangways family homes; WHFT was born there.
2. Caroline Augusta Edgcumbe, née Feilding, Lady Mt Edgcumbe (1808–1881); WHFT’s half-sister.
3. Constance Talbot, née Mundy (1811–1880), who married WHFT on 20 December 1832.