My dear Henry
We shall be very glad to see you, and Isabella <1> desires me to say she expects you will pay her a visit too, she is at home but said so in her last letter. –
Christopher & Lady C. <2> are I believe at Penrice <3> we heard from them last week they had thoughts of going about cruizing in the Galatea <4> & talked of going to Cowes to pay Uncle Harry <5> a little visit, however that is at an end of course now. I conclude they will soon be gone from thence & hardly know where to go I daresay. home [sic] is the most natural place I should think. –
Poor Lady George <6> wrote to Mamma she seems to feel losing her dashing Stavordale <7> very much indeed she gave a tolerable account of the afflicted party, Stephen and Caroline <8> were exerting all their fortitude to be of use to their dear Father. –
I am glad to hear your Children are well pray give my love to your Wife & believe me
your affate coz
Mary
Lanelay <9>
Monday night
Henry Fox Talbot Esqre
Post Office
Cardiff
Try Laycock Abbey
not Chillingham
Try Chippenham
Notes:
1. Isabella Catherine Franklen, née Talbot (1804–1874).
2. Christopher Rice Mansel Talbot (1803–1890), immensely wealthy landowner, mathematician & politician; WHFT’s Welsh cousin, and Lady Mary Lucy Cole, née Strangways, first m. Talbot (1776–1855), WHFT’s aunt.
3. Penrice Castle and Penrice House, Gower, Glamorgan, 10 mi SW of Swansea: home of Christopher Rice Mansel Talbot.
4. Christopher Talbot’s yacht.
5. Henry Stephen Fox Strangways, 3rd Earl of Ilchester (1787–1858).
6. Probably Lady Anne Charlotte Murray, née Grant (d. 1844), grandmother of Lord Stavordale.
7. Henry Thomas Leopold Fox Strangways, Lord Stavordale (1816– 11 August 1837), son of Henry Stephen Fox Strangways, 3rd Earl of Ilchester (1787–1858).
8. Stephen Fox Strangways (1817–1848), son of Henry Stephen Fox Strangways, and his sister Caroline Margaret Kerrison, née Fox Strangways, WHFT's cousin.
9. Llanely, or Lanely, Glamorganshire: home of Lady Mary Cole and Mary Thereza Talbot.