Bath,
Saturday Jan 16th
My dear Henry
Ela <1> arrived quite safe and blooming a few minutes before one – in good time for dinner. She left all well at Dabton, <2> and she gives me a pretty good account of Aunt Newton, <3> considering her great age – but it is apparent that her health is become very fragile and her deafness has painfully increased. Our weather is very showery but fine at intervals – and Ela found it pleasant for travelling – I had a note in the early part of the week from Mrs Stainforth, <4> inquiring kindly after us, and naming you especially – she said she had not left the house since October: & was unable to call & see me – She mentioned her son <5> having taken a five <6> weeks holiday for a voyage to the Azores – thus avoiding escaping the early winter – which would have been so trying to his delicate constitution – I answered her note, & a day later I was much shocked on receiving a message from her, by her own servant, that saying, that she had received the sad news that her Son was lost at Sea on the 6th of this month. Is it not too distressing? so many many disasters by Sea – every day mentioning some loss or another! I would have spoken to Mrs Stainforth’s servant had she awaited a moment, and asked the name of the ship – and how she was certain of the news being correct: but she was gone. Did you notice this particular shipwreck in the papers – or Mr Stainforth’s name among any who were lost? I send you this scrap by [Horatia?] thinking you will like the earliest news of Ela’s safety, and I enclose a letter which came by post for you today
your affectionate
Constance
Notes:
1. Ela Theresa Talbot (25 Apr 1835 - 25 Apr 1893), WHFT's 1st daughter.
2. Dabton, Dumfriesshire: home of Matilda Caroline Gilchrist-Clark, née Talbot (25 Feb 1839-1927), 'Tilly', WHFT's 3rd daughter.
3. Eleanor Newton, née Stephenson (1788-1880), widow of Sarah Leaper Newton's brother, Robert Newton Leaper-Newton (1775-1846); she continued to live at Marle-Hill House, Cheltenham.
4. See Doc. No: 00385.
5. Rev Mr Stainforth. [See Doc. No: 04031]. His death in January 1875 dates this document.
6. Altered from ‘few’.