Tuesday Dec^r 1^st/68.

My dear Father.

I got your letter and the other letters that you forwarded. I think it very likely that I shall go down to Dover tonight. I cannot unfortunately start before 5 oclock as I have to wait for my passport. I do not know whether I shall cross tomorrow morning or not.– The Pall Mall ^<1> yesterday reported heavy sea in the channel and storm signals all along the South coast. I do not suppose that I shall stop at Calais.

My circular notes are on the correspondents of the Union Bank of London, and seem to include every place under the sun. – The Bankers to my club ^<2> said that they could not receive a cheque for my subscription due next 1^st of January as it would get into this years accounts and probably [illegible deletion] create confusion, but recommended me to send a crossed cheque through the post as being quite safe.

On Sunday there was a very considerable fog here. There was not much at Lambeth nor at the Temple but it was very thick about Waterloo bridge and the river steamers were not running. I was sorry to see in the paper the death of Lady McNeil of Granton. You will see in the Times ^<3> of today that D^r Vaughan being a Liberal, the clergy will not elect him as a proctor to Congress Convocation. ^<4>

I found Dillwyn ^<5> up here the first thing on my arrival at the Club. I wrote to Tilly ^<6> the other day.

Your affect son
Charles –

P. S. Will you ask Goodwin ^<7> to look in a drawer of the dre table in the Cloister dressing room, which I inhabited, for a flask with a Gilt cup attached to it, which I forgot, and which he may as well bring with him, and when my cheque pass book from the Bank is written up perhaps you might as well give it into his charge to bring to me, as also the key of Mamma’s ^<8> drawer which you have in your custody.

[envelope:]
H Fox Talbot Esq
Lacock Abbey
Chippenham

---

Notes:

1. The Pall Mall Gazette, an evening newspaper, founded in 1865 by Frederick Greenwood (1830–1909) and George Smith (1824–1901). George Smith has also the merit of being founder and proprietor of the Dictionary of National Biography, an undertaking he commenced in 1882. The Pall Mall Gazette was incorporated into the Evening Standard in 1923.

2. The New University Club, established in 1864, was for graduates of Oxford and Cambridge. It later moved to St James Street, London SW and merged with the United University Club in 1938.

3. The Times (London).

4. A provincial synod of clergy.

5. Harry Dillwyn. [See Doc. No: 09056].

6. Matilda Caroline Gilchrist-Clark, ‘Tilly’, née Talbot (1839–1927), WHFT’s 3^rd daughter.

7. George Goodwin (d. 1875), footman at Lacock Abbey.

8. Constance Talbot, née Mundy (1811–1880), WHFT’s wife.