Markeaton ^<1>
Wednesday October 12

Dearest Henry

I have some idea that you will be hovering about Sackville St. ^<2> towards this time – & therefore as I particularly want you to execute 2 commissions for me as you pass through London, I have determined to give you due notice of them – hoping that my bulky letter will escape the possibility of seeking for you among our own dear Cloisters – I do not think you would stay at Lacock after they had all deserted it – I have been very pleased to hear so often from you since I wrote last, & I feel considerable gratitude towards Uncle John, ^<3> for doubtless I am partly indebted to his franks for such frequent communications. – Horatia ^<4> sent me a very nice letter indeed; & I should certainly have answered it before she left home, could I have ventured to enclose to M^r Strangways, ^<5> but I happened to be in total ignorance respecting his movements. – And now for my commissions – beginning with the most important one; which is – to procure for Ela ^<6> a tippet of Swansdown fur. – It must be of the very best quality & the exact size of the & shape of the paper pattern which I have enclosed – I do not know the price of these things & must therefore trust to your discretion – The Shop people will enlighten you as to the different qualities of Swansdown (if there is any difference, which I am not sure of) & if they are honest Shop people you cannot do wrong. – Of course it must be of the purest white – not soiled by tumbling about in the Shop – I should prefer your buying it from M^rs Yates, 12 Upper Seymour St. Portman Square – if you can – I know she is a reasonable, dependable person, though not prepossessing in her appearance – but I am not sure that she keeps Swansdown goods for sale, though I know she cleans them beautifully. – If she does not keep them, she could perhaps procure one for you, or direct you where to enquire. – I would advise you to say that the Miss Mundys ^<7> recommended her to your notice; as she does not know me personally, though she furnished my nuptial wreath of Orange flowers – I am very particular about having the tippet as large as the pattern sent – but I should not much mind a very trifling variation in the shape, if deemed necessary by M^rs Yates. – I want, secondly, 6 yards of green oil silk. – probably the haberdasher’s sell it – (Swan & Edgar for instance, which is close to Sackville St.) – I believe it costs about six shillings per yard, & probably it varies in price according to quality, but I do not wish for a very expensive one. – Only it must be green, a colour which I cannot procure at Derby – otherwise should not have troubled you about it – M^rs Crowther, a cousin of my Father’s ^<8> is staying with us – It is about thirty years since she was in Derbyshire (excepting for a day or two on one occasion) but before that time Markeaton was her home – She is very glad to sojourn here once more, & remembers everybody & everything about the place as well as if she had only just left it – I am rather amused by your thinking the London road to be the best between Lacock & Markeaton, it strikes me as being rather circuitous; & without a Servant, I am afraid you will be rather inconvenienced in London. I should like to send him up to you, but do not venture, without permission. – You will be glad to hear that he has conducted himself extremely well all the time he has been here, & exerted himself to be useful in the house – I think we are lucky in having found at last & after many failures, so respectable & steady a domestic – My Father & Sisters profess themselves much pleased at gaining a week more of me, than they expected, though I have discovered that they are growing quite anxious for a little of your society also – What will you do without your newspaper. Yesterday & today it has arrived here – Will you have them sent back to Sackville St. or kept till you come? – I am sure you will delighted [sic] to see how much Ela has improved in intelligence, & also in her talking. –

Y^r affectionate
Constance.

Henry Fox Talbot Esq^re
31 Sackville Street
London

---

Notes:

1. Markeaton Hall, Derbyshire, NW of Derby: home of the Mundy family.

2. 31 Sackville Street, London residence of the Feildings, often used as a London base by WHFT.

3. John George Charles Fox Strangways (1803–1859), MP.

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

5. William Thomas Horner Fox Strangways, 4^th Earl of Ilchester (1795–1865), botanist, art collector & diplomat.

6. Ela Theresa Talbot (1835–1893), WHFT’s 1^st daughter.

7. 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.

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