Sunday April 24 –
My dear Henry
As Mary Kennedy ( Ela’s <1> late Nurse) is no longer of any use here either to herself or others, I think it is best that she should go to London & take care of her poor sick child. She is of course very anxious about it & therefore I have determined to send her without waiting for your sanction, which must have occasioned a delay of two days – She leaves this place at eight o’clock tomorrow morning by the Telegraph coach, wh will set her down in Piccadilly at Hatchell’s at the New White house cellar – at about four in the afternoon. Will you se order George <2> to meet her there; & to carry her box, which is quite a small light one, not at all beyond his strength. She will go immediately to Sackville St <3> in hopes of seeing you, or at any rate to receive permission to sleep there the first night if she cannot be accommodated at home – I hope you will not think I have done wrong, as I have acted by the advice of the wisest heads amongst us, including Mr Maul the doctor, who says that the journey & the exertion of attending upon her child will not hurt Nurse at all. – How very kind you have been in sending Dr Kerrison <4> to prescribe for the poor little child. – I suppose you will wish to settle Nurse’s wages, & therefore I have consulted the book for your information – She was paid up to the 1st of February, & 12 weeks are since owing, if we count till tomorrow the 25th of April which at 7s per week makes £4·4s – if I calculate rightly. But then you are aware that Ela has been weaned exactly a fortnight & Nurse expects that you will make a deduction in consequence. For two complete months beginning the 1st of June & ending on the 27th of July she received 5s too much per week making £2·0·0 wh ought to be deducted. The error arose from the circumstance of the allowance for the child being paid regularly by Fanny <5> in London while the Nurse was receiving her full wages of 12s per week at Lacock. –
Her wages have been high, & therefore she cannot expect you to make her any extra present, unless you wish to do so, on account of her present trouble. – And now about the day of your coming to fetch me. – I hope it will be soon, but my Sisters <6> bid me say that as the W– Ms <7> – do not talk of coming till the beginning of next week, you have the present week entirely at your disposal without the possibility of inconveniencing them – Perhaps towards Thursday or Friday you will have finished all your business comfortably – & we might leave Southampton either on Saturday or Monday. – And we are all agreed that if anything unforeseen were to keep you till the W. Ms really want to come; their child <8> might be accommodated at Bellevue <9> as well as Ela, & we the parents four might sleep at the George. But this is only supposing the very worst case that could happen – & even that would not be seriously inconvenient. – At the same time I cannot wish you to stay away much longer, for I begin to want you very much as I always do after a few weeks absence. –
I know you will think both of Ela & of me tomorrow – and I do feel a little disappointed that you are obliged to spend the day far away from us –
The enclosed letters came in the last Basket from Lacock. –
Dear Henry every your affectionate
Constance. –
Henry Fox Talbot Esqre
31. Sackville Street
London
Notes:
1. Ela Theresa Talbot (1835–1893), WHFT’s 1st daughter.
2. George Goodwin (d. 1875), footman at Lacock Abbey.
3. 31 Sackville Street, London residence of the Feildings, often used as a London base by WHFT.
4. Robert Masters Kerrison, MD.
5. Lady’s maid.
6. Laura Mundy (1805– 1 September 1842); Emily Mundy (1807– 5 November 1839); Marian Gilder, née Mundy (1806 – 14 October 1860); m. 6 August 1844 William Troward Gilder (d. 1871), Army Surgeon (ret).; WHFT’s sisters-in-law.
7. William Mundy (1801-1877), politician, WHFT’s brother-in-law; and his wife, Harriot Georgiana Mundy, née Frampton (1806-1886), WHFT’s cousin & sister-in-law.
8. Francis Noel Mundy (1833–1903), WHFT’s nephew.
9. ‘Belle vue house’, a private residence in Southampton.
10. Samuel Hallam.