TALBOT2591

Laycock abbey
11^th February

My Dear Henry

I am writing to you in the midst of a very grand Thunder Storm, which appears to shake the Tower, but I must send you due righe¹ on this dear day which has been the source of so much happiness to me, as this is the first that has come round since you have attained the two great objects of Man's Life, and therefore I must call eighteen hundred and thirty two annus feliciter clausus.²

We invited M^r Awdry³ to meet M^r Frampton,⁴ as he is connected through the Arnolds⁵ & M^r Wollaston⁶ & we knew it would give him particular pleasure when lo & behold! when the day came & M^r Awdry arrived, The Framptons were all just suddenly departed, obliged to go to remodel the settlements. John ⁷ is still here & M^r Vivian ⁸ coming to day, & Henry Fitzmaurice & M^r Guthrie. ⁹ - I wish you would let us know how the world wags -

aff^ly y^rs
EF

There is an Estuary at present which covers the whole vale. It is as wide as I ever saw it.

I wish you would invent me a short sentence to be inscribed in the Alcove - you have it all in cranio ¹⁰ - & I wish it to be done before I go this Spring, on the great uncertainty of all human things