TALBOT5124

Laycock Abbey
12^th December

My Dear Henry

We have settled not to go to Melbury ¹ till the 21^st because L^d Ilchester ² will be at Abbotsbury ³ all next week. So now is my time for going to London to chuse the Paper if you still think of it. You know that without that sine quâ non ⁴ that house is useless to you, when you are en famille. ⁵ Constance ⁶ seems quite off the idea of Brighton, & even proposed that you & I & Horatia ⁷ should go there without her, but this scheme I told I did not think would suit you. She says she had rather spend her money on Belgium, & indeed I hope that plan is not given up. Mais revenons à nos moutons ⁸ – if you think of spending February & March in Sackville Street ⁹ there must be time given for the papering. I believe Miles & Edwards ¹⁰ would do it in a fortnight. The drying is only a day or two it is the manual labour of cutting out & pasting that takes the time. Write me word what you think of all this, because after I am at Melbury it would be a job to get up to London, but from here it is nothing. It is the cold that indisposes Constance to the notion of Brighton, She Shivers at the prospect of the journey & of a lodging house in such weather. There are two very happy people here under your roof, so happy indeed that they sought permission from Bowood ¹¹ to stay another day. Lord M^t E ¹² intends coming Saturday but this weather will or ought to deter him. It is only poor M^r Condy ¹³ qui tient bon ¹⁴ in the Cloisters every day

[envelope:]
H. Fox Talbot E
31. Sackville S^t.
London