Penrice <1>
Wedy
My dear Henry
The arrival of certain three cornered boxes,<2> announces no doubt that the event has taken place and now I want an account of the wedding so I hope you will exert yourself in our favour & let me have a letter as soon as possible, here the day was one of alternate smiles & tears just what it ought to be, for on such an occasion I think it looks heartless if there are only smiles and a very dismal affair it would be if only the latter!
The juvenile Bridesmaids must have looked very pretty and I daresay behaved themselves with great propriety. I hope they liked it better than I did whenever I acted the character! –
We have had most unsettled weather & the very sudden changes have not agreed with Mamma <3> she was very much better when we had the hard frost indeed it braced us all I think & the young ones delighted to go on the Ice with their Papa & had many slides on the ponds in the Marsh & occasionally a drive in a chair too, so they were very sorry for the thaw.
I went down to Mew Slade the other day & shewed Thereza Llewelyn <4> some of the caves & rocks where we used to have our dinner & scramble about in former days! I hope to take her & her Sister Emma <5> to Worms Head if they remain here the rest of the week & we have tolerable weather the roads are very bad & since the frost very wet. I got about famously when the ground was well frozen & bad roads did not signify but now one is obliged to consider if one can get thro’ some parts. –
I hope your Greenhouse answers & that your charming bed of aconites is coming on, how are the snowdrops?
My love to my dear Cousins Great & small.
Ever your affte coz,
Mary
Notes:
1. Penrice Castle and Penrice House, Gower, Glamorgan, 10 mi SW of Swansea: home of Christopher Rice Mansel Talbot.
2. Tri-cornered boxes were the traditional packaging for pieces of bridal cake.
3. Lady Mary Lucy Cole, née Strangways, first m. Talbot (1776–1855), WHFT’s aunt.
4. Thereza Mary Llewelyn (1834–1926), photographer, and daughter of Emma Thomasina Llewelyn, née Talbot (1806–1881), photographer; WHFT’s Welsh cousin and John Dillwyn Llewelyn (1810–1882), Welsh photographer, JP & High Sheriff.
5. Emma Charlotte Llewelyn (1837–1929).