Wedding letter to Kate, pages 11–12: Louisa's lilac & grey silk dress, William ushering, William's beard and plantation
Book 1, Page 192
Transcription
An open-book scan showing two facing leaves of a handwritten letter in brown ink on lined paper. The left leaf is paginated 11 at the top centre, the right leaf 12.
Left column (letter page 11)
Louisa wore “a lilac & grey / Silk dress trimmed with / all the appliqué lace / of the family.” She had had / it before & from being / packed away it had / got Spotted. So Nell tore / her lace veil for a / top Skirt — It made a / very handsome dress. — / Tho. was radiant in his / wedding Suit & looked / as happy as possible — / William had been at / Mulberry, but arrived about / quarter of an hour before / the people came, dressed / himself & helped in / ushering in the Company / Some of the people did / not Know where to go to / & he Stand at the top of / the Stair case & would carry / them to T.G.B. without a word
Right column (letter page 12)
in his Ear — Another moving / up the Stairs Show these off & come / back for the Next party — / He gives the most ridiculous / account of it, & is very / funny about his / performances — Keeps / up laughing, & the things / are obliged to laugh in / spite of themselves — He is / Still here. I dont Know / what he is going to do — / We heard from Uncle / Eddie that ^he William had / bought a plantation — / He has a beard & we / think he looks awfully / with it — He says well any / how he is very glad he had / it cut, as he was perfectly / disguised at the Reception, / he was glad not to look as / idiotic as he felt bowing & / Smiling to Every body that he did not know
AI Notes
An open-book scan showing two leaves of the wedding letter to Kate. The left leaf is paginated 11 at top centre; the right leaf is paginated 12. The writer describes Louisa’s lilac-and-grey silk dress trimmed with the family’s appliqué lace; ‘Tho.’ (the bridegroom, Theodore Gaillard Barker) radiant in his wedding suit; William arriving from Mulberry just before the guests and helping to usher — escorting people to ‘T.G.B.’ (the bridegroom himself, who would silently ‘carry them’ through the company); William’s comic talents at the reception; news from Uncle Eddie that William had bought a plantation; William’s clean-shaven appearance (‘he has a beard & we think he looks awfully without it’ — the writer means ‘awful’); and William’s relief at being disguised at the Reception ‘so as not to look as idiotic as he felt bowing & Smiling to Every body that he did not know.’
Letter continues on page 195. Tho. (the bridegroom) is identifiable from this page’s “T.G.B.” initial as Theodore Gaillard Barker; “Tho.” is the writer’s habitual shorthand for him (cf. p. 187/188, 195). “William” is the writer’s brother-in-law or relation, just arrived from Mulberry — note that Theodore Gaillard Barker’s plantation was Mulberry, in St John’s Berkeley. The “Uncle Eddie” who reports William’s plantation purchase is the same Uncle Eddie who appears elsewhere in the Barker correspondence (e.g., p. 064, p. 262, p. 103).