Lacock
3d May 1841
My Dear Mother
Pray send me the list of the members of the Athenæum Club, <1> which is lying on the library table.
Let me know if you hear anything from Mlle Amélina, <2> whether she has decided to abandon Rennes.
We have rainy weather, very good for vegetation but Mayday was as fine a day as was ever seen and the children drank tea on the East Terrace.
The Glycine Sinensis is most lovely at present it grows against the wall of the kitchen garden. In the Greenhouse are some very handsome things Clianthus punicens from New Zealand, Lobelia bicolor and Goodia lotifolia –
I intend to enclose a flower of the Clianthus.
Your affte
Henry
Notes:
1. Athenaeum Club, Pall Mall, London: WHFT’s club; a gentleman’s club composed primarily of artists and scientists.
2. Amélina Petit De Billier, ‘Mamie’, ‘Amandier’ (1798–1876), governess and later close friend of the Talbot family [See Amélina's journal].