Lacock Abbey
Saturday evening May. 14.
My dear Father.
Our weather here is very fine and today was excessively hot. I took a turn in the garden after dinner and was astonished by the immense number of beetles that were wheeling their droning flight about. I had a combat with one who seemed bent upon entering the arbour where I was sitting. I was armed with a garden rake, and he flew so slow that though I merely o placed the rake in front of him he always flew against it and finally he stuck between the prongs, being so I thought he was muitilated [sic] but he survived the combat & departed. I got my solutions in order, and very hot I got walking backwards & forwards in the sun. This is a real genuine May. I took a negative of the hall steps and the hall itself including the parapet from the terrace in front of it. It seems a pretty good one for the 1st of the season, but it is to be intensified having ha simply mo had the picture brought out by the pyro, [illegible] fixed. and not strengthened. It was a wet plate, the dry materials being scarcely ready yet. The collodion [illegible deletion] film is rather streaky which will I think show in the printing. The man at Bath sent Bromo-iodized collodion I find. Whereas I only asked for iodised, and it also purports to be instantaneous. I suppose he thought it suitable collodion for the purpose for I told him I wanted it for dry Tannin plates. He seems a good chemist for the purpose. his name is Walker <1> in Broad St. The Pyro he sent me Is of beautiful appearance, but has not that peculiar & (pleasant as I think) smell that Duncan & Flockharts pyro has. One always forgets something, and I forgot to tell him to send the Cyanide of Potassium in powder, so he sent it in lumps, which is not nearly so useful convenient a form for making the solutions, so I fixed with Hypo having found a bottle in Bleak house unopened which had been bought from Hennemans establishment, <2> so it has waited some little time for use, but seems to be in good order. I also noticed the a stoppered bottle labelled Collodion in the middle of which remains something looking very like a Palmers night-light which appears to be the solid part of the collodion. The ether having evaporated and this collodion solidifying at the bottom of the bottle has then contracted & left the sides, & remains as a little cylinder in the middle which is curious. Bleak house seems capitally adapted for a dark room; the shutters shut so easily, only the one out of which you had a round hole cut requires a little doctoring to make it fit prop exclude the light properly. Also today Bleak was very cool & pleasant, whilst externally the air was fit to stew one. Edward Nicholl <3> called here Yesterday, but I had gone to Bath and as he returned to Chippenham by the road & I returned to Lacock by the fields from Chippenham we did not meet which was unlucky. He had told Mr Blomfield <4> that he might perhaps come, but Mr Blomfield considering it very uncertain did not tell me, or I should have stayed at home, which was unfortunate. It seems to be just about the same length of walk, to Corsham, or to Chippenham by the fields, and as the fields are pleasantest I went to Chippenham. One crosses traverses a marvellously long meadow, just beyond Lackham. The stone work of the steps leading up to the hall seems much dilapidated, but owing to the plants that have been planted there it wont appear much I should think in my photograph. There is a new Wesleyan chapel near the Canal bridge, which must I think be the one for which they wanted to get a subscription out of you on the plea that they were afraid it would be ugly unless that they got some more money. Well as far as I can see from the windows it is not an objectionable feature in the landscape It is white (either brick or stone, I don’t know which) and with a high pitched roof, and no objectionable pretensions. The lilacs are delightful & scent the air very much. The horse-chestnuts also make a great show and the laburnums will make a show soon. I think that arch, (known vulgarly as “the Tudor”) looks much better for the fact of the laurels which used to hide it very much having been killed down by the frost, as they are now low. There is a tree in flower in the orchard which I take to be a double cherry. There is a very pretty pine in the orchard of which I forget the name but which certainly seems to flourish. I noticed yesterday that they were putting up the iron fencing near the shed, I saw that from the Water meadow for I did not go into the stew ground. I have got about half through Macaulays <5> first volume. I find him very interesting but I am reading leisurely so I don’t get on fast. I have copied out roughly a pedigree of the Davenports out of Burkes Landed Gentry <6> – Some of the things are curious and deserve to be known, for instance with respect to the intermarriages for instance Dr William Davenport and Martha Talbot were first cousins, for his mother was Barbara 2nd dr of Sir John Ivory by Anne his wife dr of Sir John Talbot of Lacock. Also Dr Davenports grandmother was Elizabeth dr of Sharington Talbot of Lacock so Dr Davenports father & mother must have been first cousins once removed (or as far as I can make out the former was a grandson & the latter great grand-daughter to Sherrington Talbot.
? Sherrington Talbot the elder or the younger. Also the Lady who married Sir Mytton & whose portrait we have is in this pedigree. As Mary Elizabeth m John Mytton of Halston being the dr of Dr Davenports father by his first wife Mary Charden. I did not mean to say that Lucy <7> in general cooked badly for on the contrary almost everything she has given me has been very good. And I believe the fruit was to blame in the pie I complained of, I don’t believe any cooking could have made it good.
Your affect son
Charles
turn over
Please thank Ela <8> for a letter received yesterday (Sunday morning) I have also received a letter of yours and another from Ela.Notes:
1. H G Walker & Company, chemists, Bath.
2. Nicolaas Henneman (1813–1898), Dutch, active in England; WHFT’s valet, then assistant; photographer.
3. Rev Edward Powell Nicholl (1831–1902), Vicar of Lacock from 1864 until his resignation in 1870; photographer.
4. Arthur Blomfield (b. 1827), curate of Lacock.
5. Thomas Babington Macaulay (1800–1859), MP & historian.
6. Sir Bernard Burke (1814–1892), A genealogical and heraldic dictionary of the landed gentry of Great Britain and Ireland (London: Harrison, Pall Mall, 1863).
7. Lucy Mary Nicholl (1824-1876), of Merthyr Mawr.
8. Ela Theresa Talbot (1835–1893), WHFT’s 1st daughter.