Lacock Abbey
Easter Sunday April 9
My dear Father
I forward a letter that arrived for you this morning. The Anemone Appen Apennina is in very fair flower. The Wisteria is I believe to be good.
Though I could not find the inscription you wanted in the York Museum, I find it given in the descriptive account of the Antiquities,<1> so copy it from thence
Thenke = mon = thi = liffe
mai = not = ev = endure
that = thou = doest = thi = self
of = that = thow = art = sure
but = that = thow = kepist
unto = thi = seetur = cure
and = ev = hit = avail = the
hit = is = but = aventure
You did not tell me it was on a medieval paving tile, or I should have found it.
In the same account of the collection is a woodcut of a very fine mortar mortar that belonged to the infirmary of St Mary’s Abbey of the date 1308. After narrowly escaping destruction it found its way back to St Mary’s in 1835. –
Your affect son
Charles H Talbot.
Notes:
1. Memoirs Illustrative of the History and Antiquities of the County and City of York ... and Catalogue of the Museum... (London: John Murray, 1848).