TALBOT9594

Walton House
Bournemouth
Dec. 14. 1869

My dear Uncle Henry

You will I think know already by a letter from my Mother that I was not here when you wrote – I found your kind letter on my return, & thank you very much for asking me to come Lacock [sic] which I should have liked very much to do – all the more so as Matilda is with you – but as you see, I have been away for some time – longer than I wished to be as my wife has not been very well – &, as there is no prospect of any of her family coming here until after Christmas, I could not leave her again at present.

I am very sorry for this as I should have much enjoyed joining your family party.

I am ashamed to write to Matilda having behaved abominably in never having done so for months, though she wrote to me at Cannes & sent me some photographs of her little boy & herself – one particularly good one in a Mantilla. –

I have no excuse to offer, & she who is a good correspondent, will probably not understand how one is sometimes led to put off writing a letter from week to week, the more so the longer one has neglected it. The spirit of procrastination seems to accumulate at compound interest. Please give her my love & ask her forgiveness – & with my best love also to Aunt Constance – d^o to my little godson – & kind regards to Charles –

Believe me Y^rs aff^y
Mount Edgcumbe

[envelope:]
Henry F. Talbot Esq^re
Lacock Abbey
Chippenham
M^tE
[crest on verso: M^tE]