Apthorpe <1>
October 15th 1814
My Dear Henry
Direct your next letter to Sackville Street, <2> because I am uncertain what day I shall leave this, & Mary Prior always knows where I am & will forward them accordingly, as Mr F. <3> gives her the orders. I enclose you a specimen of the Lopezia racemosa, of which there are many plants in the Green house here, it is an annual & has is a remarkably pretty plant and a triangular leaf of a new Botany Bay Acacia. There is a Salisburia antifolia or Chinese Jingo Tree <4> that grows in the flower Garden, it is above 50 feet high. They cannot propagate them in this Country, all there are being imported. It is an odd shaped leaf, do you know it? I have seen them before, but never so large. There are some fine Cedars of Lebanon, & two immense Red Virginia Cedars. All Ever greens seem to flourish particularly here, there is a Yew Hedge 70 feet high & 300 long and the Catalpas, Tulip Trees & Magnolias seems [sic] to thrive very much. It is not a pretty place, but a most curious old house, consisting of almost every species of architecture, Gothic, Grecian, Saxon, & old English. One Gateway has 1023 carved in stone upon it.
I am writing in a hurry & its almost dark
So adieu
Wansford October seventeen 1814 Westmorland <5>
Wm H. Talbot Esqr
Dr Butlers's <6>
Harrow Southall
Middlesex
15. Oct. 1814 <7>
Notes:
1. Now commonly referred to as Apethorpe House, Wansford, Northamptonshire, the seat of the Earls of Westmorland.
2. 31 Sackville Street, London residence of the Feildings, often used as a London base by WHFT.
3. Rear Admiral Charles Feilding (1780-1837), Royal Navy; WHFT's step-father.
4. The more modern spelling is Ginkgo, often mis-spelt Gingko, associated with both Japan and China.
5. John Fane, 10th Earl of Westmorland (1759-1841).
5. Rev George Butler (1774-1853), Headmaster at Harrow.
6. Written in another hand at the back of address panel.