You will find Mary <1> here
Dear Henry
you will have received a letter from me – I shall be glad to see my godson <2> again – I am only afraid we cannot promise to convey so many from Evershot station here, but will send a little carriage & a supplementary fly is to be had at the station There is to be no party but the Hobhouses <3> – for several reasons –
I shall be glad to see your Ferns – I have got Hookers Sp. filicum <4> – & Smith’s shilling Catalogue, <5> a most convenient manual – & I am taking in Moore’s Synonymes <6> – which is not near the end of Letter A. yet – but is enough to frighten one as to names. Ferns are even worse named than other plants.
My chief work here is cutting down the overgrown beech, ash & sycamore which have grown up like weeds in the garden, old seeds selfsown –
I hope if you go on to Mt Edgcumbe <7> you will incite Vall: <8> to do all what might be done to make use of the capabilities of that favoured spot – he has time before him & may see a new generation of Antarctic plants grow up there – I trust Lady C. V. <9> is worthy of the place & that she is of an improving disposition.
Yr affte uncle
Wm
Melbury <10>
29 Decr
Notes:
1. Mary Thereza Talbot (1795–1861), WHFT’s cousin.
2. Charles Henry Talbot (1842–1916), antiquary & WHFT’s only son.
3. Henry Hobhouse of Hadspen, whose wife was Frances, sister of Thomas Gaisford. See Doc. No: 08014.
4. Sir William Jackson Hooker (1785–1865), Species filicum; being descriptions of the known ferns …, (London: W. Pamplin, 1846–1864). See Doc. No: 07889 where the same titles are mentioned.
5. Probably John Smith (1798–1888), Cultivated ferns; or, A catalogue of exotic and indigenous ferns cultivated in British gardens …, (London: W. Pamplin, 1857).
6. Probably Thomas Moore (1821–1887), Index filicum: being a synopsis of the general of ferns … with geographical distribution, synonyms, … etc., (London: Williams & Norgate, 1857–1862).
7. Mt Edgecumbe, near Plymouth: seat of the Earl of Mt Edgcumbe.
8. William Henry Edgcumbe, ‘Val’, 4th Earl Mt Edgcumbe (1832–1917), JP & Ld Steward of the Royal Household; WHFT’s nephew ‘Bimbo’.
9. Lady Katherine Elizabeth Valletort, née Hamilton. She married 'Val' on 26 October 1858.
10. Melbury, Dorset: one of the Fox Strangways family homes; WHFT was born there.