Caledonian Hotel
Princes Street
Jan 30th 1874
My dear Papa,
Will you first of all wish Mama <1> very many happy returns of her birthday from me – I would have written to her, and thanked her at the same time for her letter received today, only it was to her that I last wrote, and I wished today to answer your letter which was forwarded to me from Dabton. <2> You will have heard that we had come here house-hunting and remained for two balls. The one on Tuesday – here was very brilliant and pretty, and was well worth going to see – and I was glad to meet some old friends. Sir William & Lady Gibson Craig <3> and their daughters were there – but on the whole there were few people I knew among the crowd of eight hundred or more – and many of those I used to know I had great difficulty in recognising – I have made 16 calls since I came – Will you tell Monie <4> that my dress looked quite fresh at the Ball! I hope the one tonight will look as well – I will write a description of the proceedings to her afterwards – Thank you very much for your offer of the two little books – I had the whole set, but I gave them away, intending to get them again for myself – At present I have only got the Physical Geography, so if you like to send me the two you have, I shall be grateful. We go home tomorrow morning We have taken the house 5 Roseberry Crescent – from the 9th of February – I have also arranged with Mrs Pitman <5> about a dancing class with her children 2 days a week and another day for drilling – so I hope the children will stand upright for ever afterwards. I have found out all about the teaching at the school of design but not quite made up my mind if I shall go in for it or not – I want to copy a picture at the “National Gallery” here and I do not know if I can do both –
With much love to all
your most affecte daughter
Tilly
Notes:
1. Constance Talbot, née Mundy (1811–1880), WHFT’s wife.
2. Dabton, Dumfriesshire: home of WHFT’s daughter Matilda.
3. Sir William Gibson-Craig, MP (b. 1797), and his wife Elisabeth Sarah Gibson-Craig.
4. Rosamond Constance ‘Monie’ Talbot (1837–1906), artist & WHFT’s 2nd daughter.
5. Next door neigbour of the Talbots at 13 Great Stuart Street, Edinburgh.