TALBOT3488

Laycock Abbey
22 March

My Dear Henry

you have forgot your rural science, to talk of planting such weather as we have, & have had, it is quite out of the question. For a long time we have had hard frosts, dry ground, cold cutting north east winds & now snow five inches deep & likely to be much deeper, as it has not ceased snowing for 24 hours. M^r F. ¹ has got the names of the Men who took the Sand, but Blackham ² thought it better not to stir in the business till they had come to some terms about the Sand, as he is now afraid they will go elsewhere for it. Till this is settled M^r Awdry does not think it expedient to make them pay for what they have taken. It seems they cannot do without it & as there is no sand so good as yours nearer than Bristol, M^r Awdry thinks most likely they will return for it, but probably this will be known by the time he comes here next Monday.

M^r F. is very far from wishing to throw his Shield over M^r Awdry as you seem to suppose in your letter to him, by the phrase you make use of “now I do not call this a vigilant superintendance of the property on the part of an Agent.” Is he not always dinning in your ears the same thing? he was afraid you would think usque ad nauseam. ³ He very often imagines he only teazes you by suggesting things for the good of the place, which strike him forcibly. Quant à moi ⁴ I am daily & hourly dissatisfied with M^r Awdry & particularly at this moment about the timber about which he has no knowledge I am sure. at the same time with all his inefficiency & weak facility he certainly has an attachment to you & to the place (after his own fashion be it understood) founded on long acquaintance & there is a great respect felt for him by the Farmers & Tenants, I think because he is a gentleman, a remains of the old English feeling which is still left in these remote regions. The Fence near the Cascade has been done long ago, it is made very stout & M^r F. took the Police man down there to shew it him, & desired him to be vigilant but he said it is so near some cottage gardens that it is too easy for the people to steal in, but he would do what he could. The Gardener thinks they do it at Night. Those odious sheep chose to jump over the Haha & come & feed on the green & tempting pasture under the South gallery windows, so I made the Garden men deepen the Haha all the way & an excellent job they have made of it, it has not been done since M^cphail’s ⁵ time. –

Thursday

It has never stopped snowing & is much deeper now than it was in january & still coming down. I must say such weather at the vernal equinox is a great trial of temper when one has much to do out of doors & short time to do it in. The thermometer is 28. in the South of Scotland it stands at 9! what must it be at Inverness? Where I see the Mail came to a dead stop. I am grieved about poor little Bimbo ⁶ – but I recollect Caroline ⁷ having exactly the same accident playing with her cousins the very last time she was at Penrice ⁸ when 3 yrs old

Among the old Letters was one from M^r Grossett ⁹ written in 1809 objecting to taking the Abbey unless one thousand pounds was immediately laid out upon it, because it was so out of repair & so little furniture in it. I have thoughts of taking Olive’s ¹⁰ picture up to town to be repaired & cleaned, being painted on wood & very old it would be dangerous to have it done by any but the most experienced hand. It is a curious picture in itself & I observe her name is spelt Oliva, which perhaps you may think an improvement. I am glad the roof of the Dormitory is going to be done because the jackdaws & Swallows have had the libre entrée & actually built their nests among the old pictures. D^r Prideaux ¹¹ who wrote the Connections & who is represented in his picture writing them was in a shocking state from the Birds, I have cleaned & hung him up. It is a bad picture but was thought interesting enough to be copied by an Artist from Oxford, I suppose there was no other extant of him.

Poor Gwynne ¹² still keeps her room, I am very desirous to have her in London near the best advice, for though M^r Kendrick ¹³ seems to understand her case, yet he allows it is a serious one, & he has now really too much practice & though he rides about all hours of the night & scarcely allows himself time to eat or sleep, yet il ne peut pas suffire à tout, ¹⁴ and tho’ I have a good opinion of M^r Elgee ¹⁵ in common cases I should not think was [sic] equal to managing hers.

The post did not come in this Morning till 10 o’clock – It brought me a good account from M^t Edgcumbe ¹⁶

Love to Constance

aff^ly y^rs
E F

What are you doing with yourself in London?

How do you dispose of the many hours in the day & evening when you must not be with Constance? The view from the windows is like the Steppes in Russia. Bowden hill ¹⁷ is quite invisible The thick falling snow prevents seeing farther than the river.

Is it settled what compensation you are to have from the Railway people for going across your land at Wyck Farm? ¹⁸

Henry Fox Talbot Esq^r
65 Harley Street