Melbury ^<1>Dorchester
Sat^y 9 July

Dear Henry

This is only to confirm you in your good resolution of coming to Abb^{y <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 M^rs Talbot – Ela & Rosamond ^<5> are well & M^lle Amelina ^<6> if she is with you.

Y^r aff^te
W^m

[envelope:]
Henry F. Talbot Esq.
Lacock Abbey
Chippenham

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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 1^st daughter. Rosamond Constance ‘Monie’ Talbot (1837–1906), artist & WHFT’s 2^nd daughter.

6. Amélina Petit De Billier, ‘Mamie’, ‘Amandier’ (1798–1876), governess and later close friend of the Talbot family [See Amélina's journal].