TALBOT2411

Bremhill –
Sep^ber 8^th 1832

My dear Sir

I am much oblig’d to you for your kind letter.

I intended writing a short note on the lines to your Sister,¹ respecting the peculiar fate of Ela,² but I found the subject increasingly led me so far, & was in itself so very interesting & affecting & Romantic, that, I said to myself, “I have nothing to do – & will tell her story”.

The incidents you mention are too valuable [illegible deletion] to be omitted – the Particulars of the battle of Damietta, ³ are in Mathew Paris, ⁴ – the apparition of the Son – I did not know the account had been lately translated, – I apprehend there are no other authentic records of the particulars of this battle, or of the circumstance.

I cannot find out on [sic] what year Ela & William, ⁵ were married. Her Mother died 1096 – It appears she could not be more than twelve at the coronation of John – 1099. ⁶

There is a most valuable M.S. in the Cathedral of Salisbury, the fourth stone of which was laid by William & the fifth, by Ela, written by the Præcentor of the Cathedral, at the very time, and the very day, who describ’d minutely all the circumstances – who was one of the Canons, who met the corpse, in the procession, from Old Sarum, little more than [illegible deletion], five years after he W^m had laid the stone, he being the first there buried.

How long the fit of writing may last, I cannot tell – I have some four or five chapters, con amore ⁷ –

I wish you would let me see you when you come down – for William being on the King’s side, at Runnimede, I should image, the imagine the copy of “magna charta”, in the Tower, at Lacock, was to the one W^m & the Barons signed, on the spot, for the chief attestors, had each, I have no doubt, a copy.

Pray – examine all the papers – I am sure you will find [illegible deletion] some original, if not valuable, documents, & believe me

Yrs most truly
W L Bowles

Oh! that I were on the Edge of Southampton waters, this beautiful day.

H F Talbot Esq^r
Cowes
Isle of Wight