Lacock Abbey
Thursday Oct 17.
My dear Henry
Lady Elisabeth <1> writes today that I must expect her home Saturday evening – and I imagine Horatia <2> will come with her – They mean to try & come through in one day – emulating at a distance the energy of the Bonnevals, who travelled from Mt Edgcumbe <3> to London in one day –. Lady E’s letter goes on to say, that Mrs Damer <4> proposes a visit at Lacock Abbey in the course of next week – She had met Lord Lansdowne <5> at the Installation of Louis Philippe at Windsor <6> & learnt from him that Lady Elisabeth would probably be at home at the time mentioned – As you do not like company it is fortunate she has chosen this moment of your absence. – I no longer dread her as I did last year – having studied her countenance when we were in London & found nothing repulsively alarming in it – Today our weather is very fine & I hope it is the same with you & that you are at this instant engaged in taking the likeness of some interesting building – The sky has been gradually putting on a serene look & the wind is nearly gone, so I think there is a good prospect for your works.
It was riding out on a very damp day that made Lord Mt Edgcumbe <7> ill – when Lady E. wrote he was keeping his room & had been invisible since their return from Carclew <8> –
I wrote to you yesterday, but thought you ought to be put in possession of all family news as quickly as possible – and therefore it is that I write again so soon –
Your affectionate
Constance
[envelope:]
Henry Fox Talbot Esqr
post office
Edinburgh
Notes:
1. Lady Elisabeth Theresa Feilding, née Fox Strangways, first m Talbot (1773–1846), WHFT’s mother.
2. Henrietta Horatia Maria Gaisford, née Feilding (1810–1851), WHFT’s half-sister.
3. Mt Edgecumbe, near Plymouth: seat of the Earl of Mt Edgcumbe
4. Mary Georgiana Emma Damer, née Seymour. She had married George Lionel Dawson Damer (1788–1856), MP, in 1825.
5. Henry Petty Fitzmaurice, 3rd Marquess of Lansdowne (1780–1863), MP, WHFT’s uncle.
6. Louis-Philippe (1773–1850), King of France (1830–1848), visited the Queen and Prince Albert in 1844.
7. Ernest Augustus Edgcumbe, Lord Valletort, 3rd Earl of Mt Edgcumbe (1797–1861), WHFT’s brother-in-law.
8. Carclew, Cornwall, 3 mi N of Penryn: seat of Sir Charles Lemon
9. Ela Theresa Talbot (1835–1893), WHFT’s 1st daughter, Rosamond Constance ‘Monie’ Talbot (1837–1906), artist & WHFT’s 2nd daughter, Matilda Caroline Gilchrist-Clark, ‘Tilly’, née Talbot (1839–1927), WHFT’s 3rd daughter and Charles Henry Talbot (1842–1916), antiquary & WHFT’s only son.