TALBOT1691

25^th July

My Dearest

If you wish me not to leave town Tuesday of course I will not. This seems to be a bad season for Switzerland (where it always rains in the best of times) & all the accounts from France shew it to be the same there, as least all the Northern parts. And I am a Your Letter from Winchester ¹ amused us very much. I wonder whether we have any thing to regret in not having gone there?

I cannot help wishing you had fixed on some model for the 3 Windows of the new room, because then the Stone work could have gone on all the fine part of the Summer & as it is to be done by contract it could make no difference your being at home or abroad.

I understand it is only to cost £100 the three (including the 4^th which is the false window) and the great blank seen from the road gives the house such a ruined, forlorn, unsightly appearance. If the Stone work was done & then filled up with paper instead of glass till next year, that side of the House w^d not look so melancholy – & [undecipherable] ² done by contract you know the worst, & that it will cost the same whenever finished. I merely throw out these ideas because Harrison ³ is now with you, otherwise they would be more than useless. I am glad to see that old wretch of Forest Lane is hanged to day – all the wives of the community are interested in its not being brought in only manslaughter. I hope the warning will do good in that wicked neighb^hd though I believe the provinces are shockingly demoralized all over England.

Is the ha ha in front of the House marked out, because if it is I can watch its progress during your absence

Horatia’s ⁴ cough is come back again as bad as ever – She must try change of air again

Henry Fox Talbot Esq^r
Laycock Abbey
Chippenham
Wilts