TALBOT9770

Lacock Abbey
Easter Sunday April 9

My dear Father

I forward a letter that arrived for you this morning. The Anemone Appen Apennina is in very fair flower. The Wisteria is I believe to be good.

Though I could not find the inscription you wanted in the York Museum, I find it given in the descriptive account of the Antiquities,¹ so copy it from thence

Thenke = mon = thi = liffe

mai = not = ev = endure

that = thou = doest = thi = self

of = that = thow = art = sure

but = that = thow = kepist

unto = thi = seetur = cure

and = ev = hit = avail = the

hit = is = but = aventure

You did not tell me it was on a medieval paving tile, or I should have found it.

In the same account of the collection is a woodcut of a very fine mortar mortar that belonged to the infirmary of S^t Mary’s Abbey of the date 1308. After narrowly escaping destruction it found its way back to S^t Mary’s in 1835. –

Your affect son
Charles H Talbot.