Sunday –
My dear Henry
It vexes me to say so but during the séjour here of Horatia <1> & Mr F: <2> I really cannot receive you, this last week, you wd have been most welcome, as I had two beds to spare but Ld Belmore & Ld I: <3> will occupy them in the next, & Melbury <4> Detachment succeed Framptons, <5> with the necessity for a bed in my Dressing room, then, I am very sorry that so, it, is. hoping for better times I must conclude
Ever Yr Affec
M: I:
Horatia has her maid in her room
When Ld Ponsonby’s <6> arrival at Naples is made known, Wm <7> may be expected home to speak for himself – I can boast of brilliant Cyclemons & Crocus too wch never fail to call Wm to mind with innumerable other Mementos
H. F. Talbot Esqre
Lacock Abbey
Chippenham
Wilts
Notes:
1. Henrietta Horatia Maria Gaisford, née Feilding (1810–1851), WHFT’s half-sister.
2. Rear Admiral Charles Feilding (1780–1837), Royal Navy; WHFT’s step-father.
3. Somerset Lowry-Corry, 2nd Earl Belmore (1774–1841), Governor of Jamaica; Henry Stephen Fox Strangways, 3rd Earl of Ilchester (1787–1858).
4. Melbury, Dorset: one of the Fox Strangways family homes; WHFT was born there.
5. Lady Harriet Frampton, née Fox Strangways (d. 1844) and her husband James Frampton (1769–1855), High Sheriff.
6. John Ponsonby, Viscount Ponsonby. He had been appointed envoy at Naples in June 1832, but he still had not arrived in Naples by mid-September. His mission ended on 9 November 1832.
7. William Thomas Horner Fox Strangways, 4th Earl of Ilchester (1795–1865), botanist, art collector & diplomat.