Wedny Morning 29 April
My Dear Charles
I did not send the extracts from the Times enclosed in my letter, but separately, by book post. I am surprised that you did not receive them. Today there is another telegram from Australia which comes from the governor Lord Belmore. <1> He says that orders were sent by the Fenian Conspirators <2> in England to kill the D. of Edinburgh, <3> and that O’Farrell <4> was chosen by lot to be the person to do it.
I intend to go to Dover this evening. The weather has cleared up & is sunny. Yesterday was miserably wet. I intend to get the tickets for Mrs Spedding this morning. I saw Rice’s <5> marriage in the papers –
Your affte Father
Envelope:
C. H. Talbot EsqLacock Abbey
Chippenham
Notes:
1. Sir Somerset Richard Lowry–Corry (1835–1913), 4th Earl Belmore, governor and commander-in-chief of New South Wales from 1868 to 1872.
2. The Fenian Brotherhood, founded in New York, 1858, by John O’Mahoney (1816–1877).
3. Alfred Ernest Albert, duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Duke of Edinburgh (1844–1900), son of Queen Victoria; he was the first prince to visit Australia but during a trip to Sydney in 1868, he was shot in the back with a revolver by an Irishman named O’Farrell. Fortunately for the prince the wound was not serious, whereupon he was soon able to resume his round the world trip.
4. Henry James O’Farrell, hanged 1868.
5. Possibly Rice Nicholl, son of Jane Harriet Nicholl.