TALBOT2087

London
Monday 29^th Nov^r

My dear Henry

Your letter which I received yesterday as a parcel was a great relief to my mind, as the most dreadful stories ¹ were current in London. The Police men were certainly an error of on the right side, because if they had not gone down till they were sent for it would probably have been too late. Theresa, Caroline ² &c &c and Louisa Frampton ³ arrived in town last night. Lord I. ⁴ had received a threatening letter sealed with a lap of liberty & some ill looking people dressed in the shabby genteel were seen to loiter about the premises at Melbury ⁵ in the close of the evening.

He has armed his servants, & thought it necessary to accompany his Children the three first stages through the disturbed district, & then returned to defend his Penates. ⁶ Sherborne is up, ⁷ & so is Yeovil, & Maiden Newton preparing to be so, so you may imagine I am very anxious for the next accounts. M^r Frampton ⁸ being it seems the only Gentleman in that neighborhood who has stoutly resisted the rise of wages & lowering of rents, is become a marked man, and as he rides about a great deal it is feared he may be shot at from behind some hedge. Harriot ⁹ is very courageous to stay there, she lives up stairs & has barrica[ded]¹⁰ all the ground floor. D^r Cooper hearing of her alarms, sent a coach & four with a party of recruiting soldiers that happened to be at Weymouth. You may suppose [illegible] at their arrival, for tho’ they are but few, they are always formidable to the mob, who in most places have run away at the sight of arms. M^r Frampton is beloved in his own immediate parish, but in those at a little distance particularly at Bere Regis they have shewn such a bad spirit that they have refused to be Sworn in as Special Constables notwithstanding he told them they were liable to be indited for refusing. Kit ¹¹ has been very ill for a few days with inflammation on the chest, but is now much better & I suppose will go down to Penrice ¹² unless the accounts of Isabella ¹³ are better. Sir Christopher ¹⁴ wrote a most alarming letter about her, said she had kept nothing in her stomach for a fortnight, and they say there is no hope for her unless the remedies prescribed by a new medical attendant, take effect. She is enceinte ¹⁵ which adds to the difficulty. All these dismal things added to the gloom of November, makes it hard to keep up one’s spirits, but I believe we are in the best place for so doing, and in the safest. On dit ¹⁶ that Government has received an intimation that there is to be a general & simultaneous rising on the 6^th of December in all parts of the Kingdom. I am glad the travelled Police man has such a good taste. I should think he must be very agreeable society if he related his adventures. If I was there I should make him tell me & take it down & make a book of it like Will^m Bankes. ¹⁷ Kit is delighted with that production because it mentions places & people he is well acquainted with. Mention if the Plate is sent off, & what day. I hope it will not be waylaid.

Your aunt Louisa ¹⁸ means to go down to Bowood ¹⁹ the end of the Week to look after her Household Gods

London ²⁰ November Twenty Nine 1830 Donegall. ²¹
H. F. Talbot Esq
Laycock Abbey
Chippenham