[Fox crest notepaper]
Melbury <1>
15 Novr
My dear Henry
I should have replied to your kind invitation before but I have been confined to my room by a troublesome bronchitis which I am obliged to nurse carefully for fear it should last through the winter. This I am sorry to say prevents the possibility of my coming to Lacock – I am even obliged to give up going with my own shooting party to Redlynch <2> next week which Edwd Digby <3> has kindly taken under his charge – Pray take care of bronchitis – it is most disabling disheartening & depressing – one can do nothing to employ oneself to any purpose.
The Mundys <4> come here for Xmas – could not you & Mr Clarke <5> & Matilda <6> join them? we shall be a quiet party –
Have you read Herschels <7> paper on colours in the R.S. Opticians in the flood of light they bring in seem to lose sight of colour – as a thing per se <8> independent of the spectrum.
Yr affte
Wm
Notes:
1. Melbury, Dorset: one of the Fox Strangways family homes; WHFT was born there.
2. A Strangways property in Somerset. The earls of Ilchester were also barons of Redlynch.
3. Edward St Vincent Digby, 9th Baron Digby, cousin of WFS and husband of Theresa, daughter of the 3rd earl of Ilchester.
4. Harriot Georgiana Mundy, née Frampton (1806-1886), WHFT’s cousin & sister-in-law; and her husband, William Mundy (1801-1877), politician.
5. John Gilchrist-Clark (1830–1881), Scottish JP; WHFT’s son-in-law.
6. Matilda Caroline Gilchrist-Clark, ‘Tilly’, née Talbot (1839–1927), WHFT’s 3rd daughter.
7. Sir John Frederick William Herschel (1792–1871), astronomer & scientist. ‘Remarks on Colour Blindness’, Proceedings of the Royal Society, v. 10, 26 May 1859, pp 72–84.
8. in itself