Melbury <1>Dorchester
Saty 9 July
Dear Henry
This is only to confirm you in your good resolution of coming to Abby <2> Monday – we go there today.
What a mess our foreign relations <3> are in!
I found a lot of pretty Orchis pyramidalis yesterday on Bubdown <4> – rare in these parts. We have great promise of Walnuts this year & I expect chestnuts. Have you the Caucasian hickory Pterocarya?
More when we meet – I hope Mrs Talbot – Ela & Rosamond <5> are well & Mlle Amelina <6> if she is with you.
Yr affte
Wm
[envelope:]
Henry F. Talbot Esq.
Lacock Abbey
Chippenham
Notes:
1. Melbury, Dorset: one of the Fox Strangways family homes; WHFT was born there.
2. Abbotsbury, Dorset: home of William Thomas Horner Fox Strangways.
3. The Schleswig–Holstein Question - see Doc. No: 08839.
4. Bubb Down Hill is east of Melbury House.
5. Constance Talbot, née Mundy (1811–1880), WHFT’s wife. Ela Theresa Talbot (1835–1893), WHFT’s 1st daughter. Rosamond Constance ‘Monie’ Talbot (1837–1906), artist & WHFT’s 2nd daughter.
6. Amélina Petit De Billier, ‘Mamie’, ‘Amandier’ (1798–1876), governess and later close friend of the Talbot family [See Amélina's journal].