TALBOT2527

Sackville Street
Shortest day 1832 ¹

My Dear Henry

I hope all the arrangements I endeavored to make for your comfort have succeeded & that Constance ² does not find Richmond Hill so cold & disagreeable as Lady Lansdowne ³ always thinks it in the winter. But I would not have her like it well enough to cause any delay in her arrival at the old abbey which will open wide its ancient portals to receive its new Mistress on the 27^th as my heart will with Maternal cordiality to your loved, and lovely bride, who I feel sure will soon shew me that instead of having lost a son I have gained a daughter. How impatient I must be for that conviction you will easily imagine and I anticipate a happy meeting next Thursday for us all

affectionately yours
Eli^th F.

Caroline has decided not to take her infant visiting about in the North of England, in the depth of Winter. Certainly it is better for it to go with me to Laycock, though the responsibility is great. We can however only act according to the best of one’s judgment & leave the rest (where eventually it must be left) in the hands of Providence. This moment I have been interrupted by the two M^r Mundys Père & Fils. ⁴ They asked the direction to Lord Lansdowne’s ⁵ Villa, as M^rs Mundy ⁶ wished to write to Constance to tell her not to go to Church next Sunday, it not being reckoned right tho’ it was so in the days of Sir Charles Grandison. They asked if I had said anything to you about it. I said it would come better from her Mother however I promised I would mention it. If ever you could escape observation it would be I should think in the populous neighborhood of Richmond. and it has likewise occurred to me that that very populousness would ensure a good circulating Library & a variety perhaps of light reading rather superior to common novels.

Caroline desires me to say she wrote a long Letter to Jane ⁷ yesterday