TALBOT1591

Monday Night. 17^th Sep^r

My Dearest Henry

This is to remind you that the Gardener should be an unmarried Man, because he ought to sleep in the house as a Guard when we are away. It would perhaps be better he should always live in the house & then you would only have to give him board wages when we are from home. If you do not find a Scotch one you quite like, M^r Selwyn ¹ will inquire at Longleat to which he lives close, & they are not likely to exact as much as one taken from a Nursery Garden. All yesterday I was very dismal, as I always am the first day of your departure, it was a melancholy looking day, there was a brouillard physique as well as morale. ² To day I am better, we met the whole party from Bowood ³ at Draycot & had a pic nic on the grass. The weather was beautiful & that Park is one of the finest in Wiltshire, wild, full of fern & Deer, & magnificent Oaks. The Lansdownes ⁴ dine here Friday perhaps you can be here, he put it off till the latest day he could in hopes of seeing you, he is going up to town, but comes soon back again & seems much disposed to dine here as often as he can, & Louisa ^<5> laughs at the idea of being frightened going back in the dark.

M^r F. ⁵ begs you will go to M^r Gardner in Regent Street & ask what progress is making in the Ordnance Maps,⁶ the two we want, and he wishes you would look at a Patent Lamp, newly invented in Regent Street near your optician,⁷ It burns with Spermaceti & he thinks it would be economical for the Gallery, if you like to bring down one of the plainest. We saw it burning at the Inn at Windsor & it gave a brilliant light. I am afraid I cannot write such interesting details as Lady Ivory ⁸ but I may tell you as she would have done, that I discovered the sheep had broke through the old rails & were all in the garden, so I never rest[ed] ⁹ till I routed everybody out to dis[lodge?] them & patch up the peccant paling.¹⁰ What pretty alliteration! - Lord L. ¹¹ seems very anxious you should consult Brodie, ¹² & I hope you have by this time, & that tomorrow's post will bring me their opinion, I include [Harrison?]. Ask William ¹³ for the title of the Book he told me of, with critical notes. I invited M^r & M^rs Scrope ¹⁴ to meet them Friday, thinking that was what you would like, if by any unlucky circumstances you cannot come I shall comfort myself that they will all in all probability dine here often again. I should be very sorry you left London sooner than you intend if the change of air does you good but your absence will be a great blank you yourself only can judge of the pour & the contre. If you have time bring M^r F. 100 engraved bits of paper to stick in books, from Halfhide's in Piccadilly,¹⁵ he has the plate & knows what he sent before with the Hapsburg Eagle but never mind if it plagues you

William Henry Fox Talbot Esq^r
31. Sackville Street
London