My Dear Henry
Your letter was a most agreable [sic] & acceptable one, & both my Father & ourselves <1> are very much obliged for your present. I assure you we had fully intended treating ourselves to your "Etymologies" <2> but since our return to England we have had time for nothing, & poor Mr Mundy not being able to read at all as yet, our literary pursuits have been at low tide. Now however I hope we may begin again & we have much to read that has been published since we have been away.
This reminds me of your Scottish Photographs <3> which came out just as we left England & to which we subscribed but we have never had our Copy . I named this to Nicole <4> when we were in London a few weeks ago but he told me that he had nothing to say to it nor to the Pencil of Nature Is No 6 the last of the Pencils? <5> We want to know this very much I am delighted & extremely proud & flattered that you like my journal <6> I had no idea it would amuse anybody but myself pray send me the Photographs you mention which illustrate it I shall like them of all things, so do not forget me I suppose Constance <7> has also got for me in charge from Horatia <8> a small book full of pictures of Monks &cc [sic] . Will you tell her that Noels <9> Tutor is not yet in Orders so he cannot be the person who was your Chaplain. Au reste I am very grateful to her for her Caution. He arrived about 2 hours ago so I have had no time as yet to judge much but we like his manner &c and he is of a very clever family. Uncle John <10> writes me word that all is going on very flourishingly with him, but does not tell me what his bambino is to be called I daresay it is Giles <11> but I do not know.
Have you heard how well they make Orange Trees grow at Moreton <12> from strik[in]g the leaves? It seems to me a great advantage, because these require no grafting.
Give my affte love to Constance & again thanking you, from my father especially, for your book Believe me
Yr Aff Cousin & Sister in law
H Georga Mundy
Markeaton
Septr 30.
We have just bought a Poney, wch act having taken place on the Feast of SS. Cosmo & Damiano fratelli, I have named Cosmo. I wonder what the servants think Cosmo means!
Notes:
1. Lt Col James Frampton (1769-1855), High Sheriff, of Moreton, Dorset, her father, and her husband, William Mundy (1801-1877), politician, WHFT's brother-in-law.
2. WHFT, English Etymologies (London: J. Murray, 1847).
3. WHFT, Sun Pictures in Scotland, a photographically illustrated work issued in 1845 by subscription.
4. Nicolaas Henneman (1813-1898), Dutch, active in England; WHFT's valet, then assistant; photographer; opened calotype printing studio in Reading in 1843 and transferred to London in 1848.
5. WHFT, The Pencil of Nature (London: Longman, Green, Brown, and Longmans); issued in six fascicles between 1844 and 1846. She was correct that No. 6 was the final issue of this pioneering photographically illustrated work.
6. This must have been an early manuscript version of her later published The journal of Mary Frampton: from the year 1779, until the year 1846. Including various interesting and curious letters, anecdotes, &c., relating to events which occurred during that period (London: S. Low, Marston, Searle, & Rivington, 1885). WHFT's extra-illustrated copy would be of great interest, but no other mention of it has been found.
7. Constance Talbot, n้e Mundy (30 Jan 1811 - 9 Sep 1880), m. WHFT 20 Dec 1832.
8. Henrietta Horatia Maria Gaisford, n้e Feilding(1810-1851), WHFT's half-sister.
9. Francis Noel Mundy (1833-1903), WHFTs nephew.
10. John George Charles Fox Strangways (1803-1859), MP.
11. Perhaps named after Giles Digby Robert Fox Strangways (17981827)?
12. Moreton, Dorset: home of the Frampton family.