Venice
Tuesday 4th August 1868
My dear Papa,
I received your long, interesting letter from Churwalden yesterday evening, so, as you see, I lose no time in following your directions to write to Lacock. But I wish you had said how soon you thought you would reach home, and also have allowed us once to write to Paris for you to pick up on the road, for somehow your letters never seem to fit your movements. I hope you got the 3d one I directed to S. Moritz, & Ela’s <1> at Bâle. Your’s <sic> all came safely – 2 arriving at the same time, for Mama & Ela, from S. Moritz & Silva-Plana. We understood you intended to leave the latter place on Saturday, but it seems you did so on Friday. I suppose you had had enough of rain & snow. What an extraordinary change of climate! It does not seem however to damp the ardour of the tourists, and no doubt, had you gone there a fortnight sooner you would have found it pleasant and not too cold. Here also the temperature has grown sensibly cooler, the thermometer fallen to 78, which is just the right degree for enjoying oneself. Yesterday we made an excursion to the Island of S. Lazzaro, entirely occupied by an Armenian convent, I Padri Mechidaristi, who were very civil in showing us all about their garden, which is very pretty and so wonderfully green notwithstanding all the hot sun the it has endured all summer. The vines had suffered sadly from the terrible hail of last week. They keep a quantity of cows & supply milk to the town. Mama <2> walked a few steps in the garden & then sat down on the camp stool while we were going round the Island, but she still feels very weak & unable to keep on her legs for more than a few minutes at a time. Two days before we visited the pretty garden Tapadopoli near the railway station – you really should have seen it. it is far prettier than the Botanic. That day Mama was merely able to leave the Gondola & sit under a tree, so I think yesterday was an improvement, but after any unusual exertion she feels too tired next day to go out at all, and until this weakness is overcome she herself says she would not be fit to undertake any kind of journey however short. Besides she is so fond of the régime of Goat’s milk & decoction of Lichen, and thinks it suits her so well, that she would wish to continue it as long as possible. Mama had a letter from Tilly <3> yesterday from which came all the way from Cotehele <4> in three days. Since the first of August there has been an acceleration of post, but as the letters arrive now in the afternoon it is impossible to answer them the same day. Tilly & John <5> seemed to be extremely happy at Cotehele and indeed to have enjoyed their holiday altogether very much, notwithstanding the excessive heat. She says how strange it seemed passing through Chippenham & Corsham without stopping, and that she had half a wish to take a peep at Lacock; not having seen it for nearly nine years! But I am glad they didn’t: it would have looked so forlorn & empty and we must make it up by having them all for a good long visit next year, musn’t we? The town is overflowing with peaches: you never saw such boat loads as arrive daily, and figs, plums and ripe grapes already abound. Tell us how the fruit is at Lacock this year. The harvest seems to be turning out much better than was expected in England after such a drought. I wish you could persuade Wilkins <6> to turn his attention seriously to the subject of ice before next winter – or rather set Charles’s <7> inventive powers to work, for the idea of passing a whole hot summer without such an essential article, in these days of civilisation, is really preposterous! Poor Colonel Kennedy’s method, which he saw practised in Canada, seemed so simple, but Wilkins thought it wouldn’t work. It was merely digging a round shallow hole in the ground, lined with sticks for drainage, and thereon establishing a conical heap of ice to be afterwards well covered with straw and banked up with earth. They would however have to be numerous & of small size, for once opened, of course, the heap speedily melts away. We hope soon to hear of your safe arrival, and that neither you nor Goodwin <8> suffered any damage from you arctic experiences.
With love from all believe me dear Papa your affect daughter
Rosamond
Notes:
1. Ela Theresa Talbot (1835–1893), WHFT’s 1st daughter.
2. Constance Talbot, née Mundy (1811–1880), WHFT’s wife.
3. Matilda Caroline Gilchrist-Clark, ‘Tilly’, née Talbot (1839–1927), WHFT’s 3rd daughter.
4. Cotehele, Cornwall: ancient house, seat of the Earl of Mt Edgcumbe, now a National Trust Property.
5. John Gilchrist-Clark (1830–1881), Scottish JP; WHFT’s son-in-law.
6. George Wilkins (b. 1814), gardener at Lacock.
7. Charles Henry Talbot (1842–1916), antiquary & WHFT’s only son.
8. George Goodwin (d. 1875), footman at Lacock Abbey.