TALBOT4067

M^t Edgecumbe¹
Wednesday April 8^th 1840

My dear Henry

Though I have many letters to write & heaps of things to do, I cannot let a day pass without thanking you for your splendid collection of Photographs which arrived quite safe yesterday at breakfast time – Some of them are quite beautiful, & shew great improvement in the art – L^d M^t E–² was charmed with the busts, & we were both particularly struck with the beautiful effect & extreme softness in round objects such as the jars & busts – There are also two views of the house, better than any I have yet seen – M^r Condy the artist was here, & was greatly delighted –³ He had often tried the new Art, like many others, but c^d not produce any satisfactory results. It is a great pity you folded them as they would have travelled perfectly well between two pieces of pasteboard. Pray tell me, before I attempt to flatten them, whether wetting them at the back with a sponge, c^d anywise injure them?– Answer this question –We have been very busy this week laying out 3 little gardens, f^r Valletors, Flora & Annie,⁴ who have each a set of small tools – It is very near the house in a beautiful spot – I wish you c^dcome & see it – We have very few things in blow yet – only daffodils, violets, every sort of primrose, periwinkles, nareipus, jonquils & anemones – I was so enchanted at discovering, what I had never found out before, a carouba tree in the open air! It grows on the Gardener’s house in the Kitchen garden, & is about 10 or 12 f^t high – He did not know what it was, – but procured the seed from a cargo of carouba pods which was tak[en]⁵ in a prize at the end of the war – the tree cannot be less than 25 y^rs old – Val. has just finished Sandford & Merton,⁶ in w^h he took immense interest – he has read with me “ Le petit Chaperon Rouge⁷” & is beginning “Cendrillon” – He learns spelling, Sums & small bits of poetry with Miss Gace, who says he does it all without the slightest trouble – He is very quick of apprehension but is apt to be very careless & heedless of what is said to him – Addio – write again soon as you promised – I am going to thin a plantation

Y^rs Aff^ly
Caroline

What have been y^r duties as High Sheriff hitherto?⁸

W. Henry Fox Talbot Esq^re
Laycock Abbey
Chippenham