84 Cadogan Place

Dec^r 28

My dear Henry

I should not have been so tardy in my congratulations ^<1> & thanks to you for your kind remembrance of us but that for the last two months our house has been a perfect hospital from the Scarlet fever which has visited my kindred & children most severely & taken from us an infant whom I have had the care of a little nephew whose parents are in India. In the midst of all this affliction I have only been confined myself a fortnight but I make the first use of my pen to assure you of the deep interest I take in the happy event which was announced to us by the arrival of the Cake. I beg my comp^ts to M^rs Talbot & hope at some future point to have the pleasure of an introduction. You will be glad to hear M^r Thackery ^<2> has the <favour?> of a comfortable curacy about 16 miles from London to which we come in Feb^y He begs his kind regards

Y^rs very sincerely

M: A Thackery

Henry Fox Talbot Esq^re M. P.
Lacock Abbey
Chippenham

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Notes:

1. Regarding the marriage of WHFT and Constance Mundy (1811–1880).

2. Francis Thackeray (1793–1842), author.