Friday ½ past 5. –

Dear Henry,

I am glad you got so prosperously to Reading. – I am this instant come from the Abbey ^<1> & have liked the Music almost as much as the last time. – My Father ^<2> took me in his carriage, therefore I have not yet spoken to the coachman about your message for M^r Thrupp. ^<3> – I will tell him about it when I go to dine in Q Anne S^t. ^<4> Yesterday I dined by myself, it seemed quite strange.

I shall be anxious to hear your opinion of Horatia ^<5> after you have seen her. you will be a better judge of her present state of health, than those who have been with her constantly. – I am so sorry I have been obliged to send off the Times ^<6> without knowing whether they have properly reported your speech. – I should be very angry if they omitted it. – This is rather a cold & gloomy looking day in London, I hope you will find it pleasanter in the country. – I miss you very bad [sic] indeed, I do think I love you better & better every day –

Y^r
Constance.

I rather think I omitted to give you your befitting title of Esquire in directing the Newspaper. –

Henry Fox Talbot Esq^re
Lacock Abbey
Chippenham

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Notes:

1. Probably Westminster Abbey.

2. Francis Mundy (1771–1837), politician and father of Constance Talbot.

3. Charles Joseph Thrupp (d. 1866), a high quality coachbuilder on Oxford Street, London, later succeeded by his more famous son, George Athelstane Thrupp (1822–1905).

4. 44 Queen Ann Street: London home of the Mundy family and a frequent base for WHFT.

5. Henrietta Horatia Maria Gaisford, née Feilding (1810–1851), WHFT’s half-sister.

6. The Times (London). Friday, 27 June 1834. WHFT’s speech was omitted, or at least his name was. [See Doc. No: 02929].