Lacock Abbey

May 16^th 31

Sir

the following is Banks’s ^<1> account of last weeks work

the two windows blanked round and finished – the door case of the dining-room finished all but cleaning down the paving between the Bannisters nearly finished the Bridge has had two coats of paint

on thursday night the 12^th ins^t there was a ball held at the Angel Inn, Chippenham by the friends of Neale ^<2> & Boldero ^<3> – when both their effigy^s were burn^d in the Street by a numerous assembly & with Cheers of Talbot & reform for Ever ^<4>

Your Ob^dt Serv^t

C. Fitzsimmons

H. F. Talbot Esq^r

---

Notes:

1. George Banks, snr (1786–1864), stonemason & coalseller, Lacock.

2. A misspelling for Joseph Neeld (1789–1856), MP & botanist, conservative MP for Chippenham from 1830 to 1856.

3. Col Henry George Boldero (d. 1873), Conservative politician; sat for Chippenham in 1831 and from 1835 until his resignation in 1859. He was brother-in-law to the other Conservative Member of Chippenham, Joseph Neeld.

4. WHFT fought his first election, as a Whig, in 1831, losing to Neeld and Boldero, but gained a seat the following year, 1832.