TALBOT1759

My dear Henry.

I wrote you a few lines yesterday but did not allude to your Mothers ¹ idea about the room, wishing that you should hear what she had to say on the subject – but I wrote to her fully & I dare say she will have read, or will read if you ask her what occurred to me – I need not therefore repeat it to you, I had invited M^r Blore ² to Lacock, & agree with you that it is most adviseable [sic] to have several opinions before any decision is made – as to Blore I think him a scientific man as to gothick Architecture, he has studied the style more than most of his contemporaries, & would tell you in an instant of what date any window or Door is – [illegible deletion] & he may have taste [illegible deletion] but I never saw a more complete failure, in every respect than the House he has built for Will^m Ponsonby ³ – therefore though I shall be very glad to have his opinion I have no idea his will be the plan you will be likely to adopt – Harrison ⁴ certainly failed in judgement – he ought to have known that a projecting room of 45. or 50 feet was not in any proportion to the length of the building – when it was told him that it did not answer your purpose to build on all the distance between the Dining Room buttresses & the window of the Library, he should have said, then it won’t do, it will look stuck on – this is the knowledge which nothing but experience can give – & what we ought to have had – he ought also, before he allowed the projecting room in the courtyard to be pulled down, to have examined the state of the old wall at the back, & have told you that it would require facing. it is possible you might still have determined on doing it, & certainly now it is done it looks very pretty but it led to great expence of which you ought to have had warning – I do not think the arches signify much they will soon be covered – & though it always was my opinion that we ought to have gone up 2 feet into the room out of the gallery still I do not think that [illegible deletion] is of any great consequence – my great objection to it is that it has an appliqué appearance – but having blamed Harrison for want of judgement I must fairly say that I have never seen observed any want of taste in any elevation of his I have seen in his office. & I should not be surprized, if his 2 elevations of the South Front one with, & the other without the room which he is now making out, turned out as good as others you may get – Still I am all for having others, & especially Blores – I went to Willement when were were [sic] in Town, & was very much pleased with all I saw, so much so as to determine never to go there again for fear of being tempted. it is ruinously dear, & before any thing is ordered you should see what L^d Lansdowne ⁵ has given you – I hope the Terrace has made some progress since my departure, & that you will like it. I was in despair when I found the coping I had thought of would not do. relieved however by Philps discovering some in another part which will answer perfectly – Your mother took charge of clothing the South wall opposite my window, but I wish you would lend a hand. I have set my heart on covering all the court yard walls, at least then, whatever is put there can so easily be taken away if it don’t do. – Pyrocanthus or what would look cheerful in the winter I should like, & might divide the space with Fruit Trees, but all that you know much better than I do – I expect we shall have a trimming frost after all this mild weather

God bless you dear.
C.F.

Dec^r 17
Middleton.

Please not to pay Gales ⁶ or any Bills till I have arranged them for you & explained