Llanelay <1>
Cardiff
Aug / 26 1836
My dear Talbot
You probably before this have heard of the sudden and illness and death of poor Sir Christopher Cole <2> on Wednesday morning about 2 o’clock by a rupture (as it is supposed) of a blood vessel near the heart – He complained soon after he went to bed of an oppression on his chest & within an hour was no more –
Lady Mary <3> has borne the shock the with admirable fortitude and resignation – cries a good deal, sleeps a little, is composed & able to talk about him at times – Mary & Jane <4> (who were here at the time) are totally well – Kit <5> arrived on Thursday & was very much upset – but all here as you well know though they feel deeply command their feelings & exert themselves to be useful & cheerful – I ought to have written to you sooner perhaps – but I wrote to Strangways <6> to beg him to write to the family in Dorsetshire & forgot you would not be included in the number – Pray also write to Mr Feilding <7> if he is not with you
Yours affy
Jno Nicholl
Cardiff August twenty seven 1836 Jn Nicholl
Henry Fox Talbot Esqr
Laycock Abbey
Chippenham
Notes:
1. Llanely, or Lanely, Glamorganshire: home of Lady Mary Cole and Mary Thereza Talbot. It is about 10 miles from Cardiff.
2. Sir Christopher Cole (1770–1836), Captain, MP & naval officer.
3. Lady Mary Lucy Cole, née Strangways, first m. Talbot (1776–1855), WHFT’s aunt.
4. Mary Thereza Talbot (1795–1861), WHFT’s cousin, and Jane Harriot Nicholl, née Talbot (1796–1874).
5. Christopher Rice Mansel Talbot (1803–1890), immensely wealthy landowner, mathematician & politician; WHFT’s Welsh cousin.
6. Possibly William Thomas Horner Fox Strangways, 4th Earl of Ilchester (1795–1865), botanist, art collector & diplomat.
7. Rear Admiral Charles Feilding (1780–1837), Royal Navy; WHFT’s step-father.