Dabton
April 19th 1868
My dear Papa,
I received the parcel of seeds quite safely at Carruchan, & I should have written at once to thank you for them, & but I had a good many letters to write at the time, & somehow I put off doing so – I divided the seeds with Mary, whose gardener seemed very anxious to try them – & one or two delicate ones I have kept to give to McIntosh, the gardener at Drumlanrig – there appear to be some very nice things among them & I hope they will succeed – We came home from Carruchan last Wednesday – & on the same day Mary went to Edinburgh to spend a week or ten days. I heard again from Genoa last week & the account was pretty satisfactory – Mama was able to sit up during part of each day – & was gradually improving – so I suppose that was as much as one could expect; after an attack of that sort the recovery must be slow – I imagine that you will not be in a hurry to move just yet, as they had not been able to fix the time of their leaving Genoa; but that you will wait & join them when they go on somewhere else? We have had great changes in the temperature of late – first very mild & warm at Carruchan then very cold with hard frost & north-east wind & today it is raining heavily – which will do good. The poor leaves have been at a stand-still for a fortnight, owing to the cold dry weather, but I already see a difference in them now since this morning. I do not think you heard of the Calamity which happened to our neighbour old Mrs Ewart – she lost all her cows (five) the other night as through some unaccountable piece of carelessness the barn caught fire, & the poor cows who were next door in the Byre, were suffocated by the smoke – & four of them died before it was found out, & the other shortly afterwards – Was it not a dreadful thing to happen? I was afraid she would be quite upset by it, but she appears to bear it pretty well.
I heard from Miss White some days ago, and she agrees to come here on the 5th May – so that is a settled thing now.
Good bye dear Papa – the children send love, & I am your affecte daughter
Tilly.
[envelope:]
H. F. Talbot Esq4.
Lacock Abbey
Chippenham
Wiltshire-