14th February
My Dearest
Your Books departed two days ago, so you will soon see them, & with them a parcel (I suppose) from Mr Hooker. <1> Make out a correct List of all the books Richard put up, yours & mine. Could you raise Ixias or Gladiolus <2> where you are? I fear they require a Hothouse. Otherwise I would send you some for your own private use. Why don't you send me some account of Normanton <3> & your goings on there? how do you like Miss Bonny <4> does she know any thing of Botany? or Astronomy? Mr Clifton has relinquished his places, & writes me word he has taken a situation in a Nobleman's family, where I suppose he is to teach the Children something of every thing. Caroline <5> told me very gravely yesterday that you would be very angry if She forgot all the knowledge you had given her.
Why should the Sun's atmosphere extend only in the plane of his Equator? I was going to make you a present of Hutton's Mathematical & Philosophical dictionary, <6> but I find it is too dear. & most of the articles are the same in the Cyclopædia, but then Hutton being in two Quarto Vols is so much more convenient. I cannot understand what Playfair <7> means by the Angular velocity of the Planets How can their motions be angular in Elliptic orbits? I looked for Hutton's explanation of this, which rather makes it more obscure. Playfair likewise alludes to the Ancient tradition of the circle of Osymandias which I can no where find. Many things are mentioned of him in many books, but nothing of his circle. Perhaps Mr Bonny <8> knows - ask him. The blind Botanist has had tricks played him, a malicious boy stuck nettle leaves on to a plant he was about to examine &c &c but in general he never makes a mistake & classes the plants very correctly.
He was blind from two years old but thinks he has a faint recollection of red from having seen a regiment of Soldiers pass thro' his native town, when in his Nurse's Arms. I have just received your scrubby letter, which looks half burnt. Why should you have been in such a hurry Dr Satterthwaite <9> dined here yesterday & said many very rare plants were found in Cumberland by a blind botanist<10> who feels them against his upper lip The Paris Quadrifolia is one
You did not send me back that very good Squib in prose about Lord Arden & his Sinecure & the penny subscription for him <11>
London Feby fifteen 1817 Auckland <12> -
Hy Fox Talbot Esqre
Normanton
Stamford
Notes:
1. Sir William Jackson Hooker (1785-1865), Prof & botanist. [See Doc. No: 00134.]
2. See Doc. No: 00744.
3. Normanton, Rutlandshire.
4. Henrietta (c. 1786-1863), the sister of Thomas Kaye Bonney. [See Doc. No: 00751].
5. Caroline Augusta Edgcumbe, née Feilding, Lady Mt Edgcumbe (1808-1881); WHFT's half-sister.
6. Charles Hutton, A Mathematical and Philosophical Dictionary (London: J. Johnson; G. G. and J. Robinson, 1795).
7. John Playfair (1748-1819), mathematician and geologist.
8. Misspelling of Thomas Kaye Bonney (1782-1863), Archdeacon of Leicester.
9. Dr James Satterthwaite (1773-1827), Clergyman, DD and Chaplain to George III in 1814; Rector of Lowther, Westmorland 1813-1827. He was at Cottesmore through his connection with the Earl of Lonsdale and the Lowther family who presented him to various livings including Lowther rectory. See also Doc. No: 00610; Doc. No: 00618; Doc. No: 00760.
10. John Gough (1727-1825), of Kendal, botanist and mathematician, who lost his eyesight at the age of three to smallpox.
11. Charles George Perceval, 2nd Baron Arden (1756-1840), politician and antiquary. Notorious for his sinecure positions, it was said that 1022 Naval Captains could each lose their arm for the cost of his sinecures.
12. Franked by George Eden, 1st Earl of Auckland (1784-1849), Governor General of India.