Friday June 28.
My dear Henry
I am very much pleased to hear of your safe arrival in London – & I hope you won’t forget to inform me d’avance <1> of your intended departure; as other wise I shall not know where to direct. You don’t mention whether you were able to call at Sloperton, <2> as you proposed – I should like to know whether you saw any of them & how you found Mrs Moore <3> – I am not surprised at your disinclination to plunge at once into the great world, but I hope you won’t shut yourself up quite as much as you did the last time. – I meant to have exhorted you on this point before you went away, but it was all done in such a bustle that I could not think of this or anything else – Nor did you half tell me which way you proposed to wander in Wales after leaving London – so that it all seems to me like a dream – How chilly & stormy the weather continues! – quite unfit for the haymaking which has commenced in the fields by the Riverside. – Have you remembered my message to Caroline <4> about getting the little books which she recommended for Ela’s <5> instruction?
If you see Harriot, <6> do gather from her any particulars she can give about Laura <7> – I want so much to know what probability there is of her ultimate recovery from this tiresome complaint, & whether her health is not suffering materially from all that they are doing – I cannot help feeling very anxious about her, because the case seems to be so much more tedious than they generally are – Shall you see her if she is well enough?
These 2 letters <8> are the only ones that have come for you – many have come for our departed guests which I have forwarded to Lanelay <9> –
Yr affectionate
Constance
Notes:
1. In advance.
2. Sloperton Cottage, Wiltshire, 1 mi E of Lacock: home of Thomas Moore, the Irish poet.
3. Elizabeth (Bessie) Moore, née Dyke (1783–1865), wife of the poet Thomas Moore.
4. Caroline Augusta Edgcumbe, née Feilding, Lady Mt Edgcumbe (1808–1881); WHFT’s half-sister.
5. Ela Theresa Talbot (1835–1893), WHFT’s 1
6. Harriot Georgiana Mundy, née Frampton (1806-1886), WHFT’s cousin & sister-in-law.
7. Probably Laura Mundy (1805–1842), WHFT’s sister-in-law.
8. Letter not located.
9. Alternative spelling for Llanely, or Lanely, Glamorganshire: home of Lady Mary Cole and Mary Thereza Talbot.