TALBOT6670

Mount Edgcumbe ¹
Tuesday August 10^th 1852

My dear Henry

I have been living in such a whirl the last few days, that I have not been able yet to answer your letter. Many thanks for your charming present to Ernestine ² – She will be delighted with it when she knows of it – but of course I keep it as a surprize for her Birthday. I think it must be the same little Book Amandier ³ told me you had given your Girls, ⁴ & which pleased her as much as it did them. Poor Ernestine’s was a disagreable [sic] accident – & the more so from the Collington Surgeon having mistaken the nature of it. He said the bone was only bent – whereas the Devonport Surgeon, who saw the arm on her return, said it was a decided fracture & that had we waited a day or two longer, it would have been too late to have made it straight. It w^d have set itself, crooked of course. He is a very clever man, the same who set Val’s ⁵ arm 15 years ago. The setting hurt poor little Ernestine very much indeed – & the notion of her arm being broken, frightened her – But she is so dear & gentle – & when she cries it [sic] the most innocent, touching thing! The moment the accident happened, she only entreated that I would not be frightened – tho’ she was then in great pain, & might well have thought more of herself than me – & when a little more composed she said: I do only entreat you dear Mamma, not to tell Papa ⁶ – He will be so frightened. – She is in no pain now whatever, & very merry – & going on quite well. We are dreadfully busy today – preparing for tomorrow’s Bazaar⁷ – & yesterday we drove to Port Eliot, to assist L^y S^t Germans to receive the Qⁿ of the French & the Nemours,⁸ who went there to Church (all the way from Teignmouth, & drove back again afterw^d) So, as Amandier saw when she was here, we have never any rest for the sole of our foot, at M^t E. Today while we were busily working & fixing our goods, arrived L^d Hardinge Sir J^ms Burgogne & 3 Colonels & L^d M^t E.⁹ is gone off with them to visit the fortifications on the Heights. – In short one lives in a bustle – so no good bye – Louisa Galwey, Miss Gent, M^r Gaisford & Captⁿ Key ¹⁰ are here – going to assist at the Bazaar – Post is going.

Y^r very aff^te Sister
Caroline