L30/11/17/2

Letter from Susan Bathurst, Lowestoft, to Lady de Grey. Thanks for hospitality during visit to Wrest. ‘We should all be well pleased with this quiet place, if we could be blessed with tolerable weather. Reference to recent rains and large quantities of corn still uncarried or uncut, which must be mostly spoiled.

12 Oct 1826

From: 1826 To: 1826

Nephew William visited arrived from a visit to ‘this great man at his great house’. He ‘was much pleased with all he had seen and with having been treated with great civility by this factious Whig’ [Reference to Holkham indicates that this was Thomas William Coke, 1st Earl of Leicester of Holkham Hall, Norfolk]. Mention of valuable manuscripts at Holkham which Lord Leicester brought from Italy. Houghton Hall in Norfolk has again changed proprietors, Lord Cholmondeley [George James Cholmondeley, 1st Marquess of Cholmondeley] has sold it ‘for an immense sum’ to Mr [George]Watson -Taylor ‘who has lately inherited a large and unexpected property and is disposing of it freely, as he purchased Mr Hope’s house in Cavendish Square the week before he treated for Houghton. Description of Lord Cholmondeley performing in a play at Houghton before leaving the house – nephew William was much amused. [Note: Negotiations for the purchase of Houghton Hall from Lord Cholmondeley eventually fell through]

item

Bathurst, Susan,
de Grey, Amabel, 1st Countess,
Bathurst, William,
Coke, Thomas (1st Earl of Leicester),
Cholmondeley, George James, 1st Marquess Cholmondeley,
Watson Taylor, George,
Hope

CORRESPONDENCE, weather, Holkham, Norfolk Houghton Hall, Middlesex Cavendish Square