Dear Henry
I thank you most sincerely for thinking of me on this happy event, <1> & most cordially rejoice with you & the dear Mama <2> on the birth of another little darling; I do love to have two Girls next to each other, & your two dear Sisters, <3> may have taught you the comfort of it; & I assure you Constance will feel it hereafter, when teaching begins, tho just now Ela must seem a person of such magnitude & importance in comparison to the little Poppet it must appear as if they could never be learning the same things – may GOD bless & prosper both & your education of them when it does begin! I very much approve of Ela’s as yet; she cannot I am sure have been allowed to obtain her wishes by urging, or she would not be so good & docile as well as so engaging Pray give my very kind love & warm congratulations to dear Constance & accept every kind wish to you both & for the two Miss Talbots from Augusta, <4> who rejoices most sincerely for & with you both
Ever dr Henry
yr affate Aunt
M Feilding
Thursdy 16th March
Notes:
1. The birth of Rosamond Constance ‘Monie’ Talbot (1837–1906), artist & WHFT’s 2nd daughter.
2. Constance Talbot, née Mundy (1811–1880), WHFT’s wife.
3. Caroline Augusta Edgcumbe, née Feilding, Lady Mt Edgcumbe (1808–1881); WHFT’s half-sister, and Henrietta Horatia Maria Gaisford, née Feilding (1810–1851), WHFT’s half-sister.
4. Augusta Sophia Hicks, née Feilding, sister of WHFT’s step-father.