Lacock Abbey
Sunday evening May. 15th.
My dear Father
Have you payed [sic] my last college bill yet, for you have not let me know? I have been studying Bucks <1> view of Lacock taken 132 years ago. I think the church must have been Early English, 13th century of 6 bays without aisles and with a stone vault and if so it must have been rather a fine specimen. Several irregular buildings stood at the west end of the terrace and I think I can trace the remai marks of them on the present wall of the dining room. There was a second floor above the site of the present dining room which may have been reached from the stone walk on the top of the south wall. A blocked window remains at a high level in the dining room wall & looking over the leads of the south gallery, and partly concealed by them. Possibly these buildings may have been the Abbesses [sic] particular lodging – as the position corresponds to that of some abbots houses. I suspect that Sir William Sherrington <2> pulled the church down to afford stone for his buildings, and that he altered the windows throughout the house to Elizabethan. It is clear that John Ivory Talbot <3> did not pull the church down. John Ivory Talbot according to the pedigree book died in 1772 so the dining room may have been built between 1732 and 1772 and the hall also. The chancel of the parish church is I think 1776 and so it must be set down to John Talbot of Lacock his son <4> who died in 1778. I dont know that there is any date upon the hall by which one can tell exactly when it was erected. Sir William Sherington [sic] & John Ivory Talbot seem to have been the 2 great builders of note. I attribute the win pointed & traceried windows of the kitchen to John Ivery [sic] Talbot, as also the Tudor arch, and the Barn near the Lodge with that remarkably quasi-window at its west end, for I believe the window to be a mere ornament on the wall. The Sphinx on the columns is more likely to be as old as Sir W Sherington or perhaps between the 2. I believe Sir William Sherringtons work would be found all over the house if it was looked for. I shouldnt wonder if John Ivory Talbot perpetrated the sham tower at Rey Bridge, <5> but it wasnt worthy of him. I shouldnt wonder if Sir William Sherrington’s room was the abbesses [sic] private kitchen, for there are some things in it in which I canno can trace no resemblance to anything imaginable but an oven.
Monday morning
Wilkins <6> says he shall be very glad of the seeds if you will send for your allotment to the Horticultural Society. <7> Today is as hot as ever – though we had thunder yesterday we had no storm.
Your affect son
Charles.
[envelope:]
H Fox Talbot Esq
13 Gt Stuart St
Edinburgh
Notes:
1. Samuel Buck (1696–1779), engraver and topographical draughtsman, drew and engraved 428 views of the ruins of all the noted abbeys, castles, &c. in England and Wales, covering Wiltshire in 1732. [See Doc. No: 04954].
2. 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.
3. John Ivory Talbot (d. 1772), created a Doctor of Civil Law at Oxford University 1736; was MP for Ludgershall 1715–1722 and Wiltshire 1727–1741. [See Alumni Oxonienses (Oxford and London: Parker & Co., 1888), p. 1385; also Doc. No: 02134 and Doc. No: 04164]
4. John Talbot ( ca.1734).
5. Reybridge, Wiltshire, 1 mi N of Lacock.
6. George Wilkins (b. 1814), gardener at Lacock.
7. Horticultural Society of London.