York House Hotel
Bath
Novr 3 1876
My dear Father
I intended to have written to my mother <1> today; but have been over at Chippenham <2> and its neighbourhood all day, and on my return found your letter; so I write to you. There will be no pipes in the cloisters at all: that could not have been tolerated. The pipe will pass from to the coil in the South Gallery, from Sir W Sherington’s <3> room, by the old hot air connection.
My Mother will be glad to hear that, in a letter, which I received this morning, from Wilkins, <4> he says that yesterday morning Mr Gale <5> had had a better account of his daughter in law: the doctor considered her a little better than she was.
The worst part of the work of the drainage alterations at Lacock had been finished. I am going over there tomorrow, and again on Monday, when there is to be a meeting of the School Managers.
Did you see a letter in yesterdays Times, <6> from a man at Sherborne, who describes the very bad state of the permanent way of the Somerset & Dorset railway, at a point between Blandford and Wimborne? He was in a train of which a van got off the rails, and gave him an opportunity of examining it.
I saw Mr Stokes yesterday morning, and then Mr Horton and with him Palmer, who used to be Borneman’s foreman, and is now with Horton. Mr Horton said that one gentleman would have taken the house, but he wanted three rooms on each floor. He said that there was little demand for houses, but that the house ought certainly to let. I gave him my address, and asked him to let me know if there was anything to communicate to you.
I saw, at the Bournemouth Station, a Notice that there was an office in the “Commercial Road”, where railway tickets could be bought during the day. I should recommend Ela <7> to do so if she goes to Poole, as they open the booking place very late at the station, and there is only one for all classes.
In my postcard to her, I mentioned that Mr Llewelyn and Lucy <8> were less well, owing to having been out in the cold weather. Mrs Traherne <9> was expected yesterday.
A cave has been found on Sheldon farm, near Chippenham, which belongs to Mr Goldney, <10> by the accident of a heifer having fallen into it, through a very small hole. It is about 4 feet high, in the oolite <11> formation, and a stream of water flows through it, and forms a fall, making a great noise. I went over there today with F H Goldney and looked at the cave but did not go into it. What was more in my line was the old manor-house of Sheldon now the farm house. Its most remarkable point is the porch, with room over, as it is of the fourteenth century, earlier than most of the manor houses one sees. The porch has stone vaulting: the room over has a later roof, added in the fifteenth century, but its walls are original. One can I think see the size of the original house, but which has been altogether altered in the seventeenth century, and parts added altogether. The whole house is picturesque, and stands in a good situation. There is a small chapel of the fifteenth century, and a large barn, with small windows or slits with round heads. I should like somebody to tell me what date that is. The form of the windows is what one would expect at the end of the 12th or beginning of the 13th century, but that hardly seems possible. I should hardly however have expected it at a late date. Mr Smith’s last letter is a curiosity. I will show it you some day.
Your affect son
Charles H Talbot
Notes:
1. Constance Talbot, née Mundy (1811–1880), WHFT’s wife.
2. Chippenham, Wiltshire: largest town near Lacock, 3 miles N.
3. Sir William Sherington or Sharington ( ca.1495–1553); in 1540 he bought the dissolved Lacock Abbey for £783 and in 1546, he became vice treasurer of the mint at Bristol. Using this position, he amassed an ill-gotten fortune allowing him to purchase several manors, chiefly in Wiltshire. These frauds soon came to the knowledge of the government, whereupon in 1549 Lacock Abbey was searched by the council’s agents resulting in him being sent to the Tower. After he eventually made full confessions, he threw himself on the king’s mercy and was pardoned in 1550.
4. George Wilkins (b. 1814), gardener at Lacock.
5. John Gale, carpenter at Lacock.
6. The Times (London).
7. Ela Theresa Talbot (1835–1893), WHFT’s 1st daughter.
8. John Dillwyn Llewelyn (1810–1882), Welsh photographer, JP & High Sheriff, and Lucy Mary Nicholl (1824-1876), of Merthyr Mawr.
9. Charlotte Louisa 'Charry' Traherne, née Talbot (1800–1880), WHFT’s cousin.
10. Harry Goldney, town clerk of Chippenham.
11. A type of limestone characterized by the presence of minute spherical grains, like the roe of a fish.