Penrice<1>
Sept. 6th 1814.
My dear Mamma,
I am now very well, & I hope you will not think of coming to London on my account. We leave Penrice next Friday for Mr Dillwynn's<2> at Swansea, & on Sunday, I believe, set out for Harrow.<3> I believe that Uncle Harry <4> is going to take charge of us to Harrow. Kit<5> likes the idea of going there pretty well, but I am so tired of Harrow that I think going there is like leaving the garden of Eden. Dr. B.<6> has answered Aunt Mary's<7> letter at last, & recommended a new master to be Christopher's tutor - You were wrong in supposing the Geranium you found<8> to be the a Pelargonium, as there are not any of that genus natives of England. Of the two Geranium's [sic] you mention, I cannot tell which you mean to be peculiar to Westmoreland, but I can assure you that the G. sylvaticum is found in eight of our counties - viz: Cumberland, Durham, Lancashire, Norfolk, Northumberland, Shropshire, Westmoreland, & Yorkshire <9>- The Geranium lucidum is common, but I have never seen it. I am much obliged to you for drying specimens of them. - I never observed the Sphagnum palustre; but it is very common in bogs, as it is the moss of which peat is almost wholly composed. I never heard before, of its being applied to the use you mention. - I am so very [illegible deletion] happy here, that I feel it more than usually disagreeable to return to Harrow. I do not think Mr Satterthwaite<10> can have gone to the extent of botany, as it is a science which extends pretty far, & which by no means consists entirely of nomenclature - It affords excellent exercise to the powers of discrimination, & practises the memory very much. I am sure that I shall find Euclid much easier, after having accustomed myself as I do here, to the attentive examination of plants; in the descriptions of which, every term & expression must be well weighed in the mind, & thoroughly understood. Far from there being no mind in it, I think that if you or he ever read Smiths Introduction to Botany,<11> you must confess that there is something more in Botany than to know every plant when you see it. Aunt Mary says there is a difference between a philosophical, & a stupid botanist. the variety of wonderful contrivances which Nature employs for the protection of the flower, & due ripening of the seeds, &c. excite one's admiration at every step, & though not so useful, Botany is as engaging as any science I have yet read about. It is a very great resource, when one has nothing else to do - & unless we are in prison, or in London, we can always find some little beauty, to fill up the time, which would otherwise be spent in ennui.<12> - Give my love to Mr Feilding,<12> & pray [illegible deletion] tell me where Caroline & Horatia<13> are
Your Affte Son
W. H. F. Talbot
Notes:
1. Penrice Castle and Penrice House, Gower, Glamorgan, 10 mi SW of Swansea: home of Christopher Rice Mansel Talbot.
2. Lewis Weston Dillwyn (1778-1855), Welsh botanist & MP.
3. Harrow School: WHFT attended from 1811-1815 and his son Charles from 1855-1859.
4. Henry Stephen Fox Strangways, 3rd Earl of Ilchester (1787-1858).
5. Christopher Rice Mansel Talbot (1803-1890), immensely wealthy landowner, mathematician & politician; WHFT's Welsh cousin.
6. Rev George Butler (1774-1853), Headmaster at Harrow.
7. Lady Mary Lucy Cole, née Strangways, first m. Talbot (1776-1855), WHFT's aunt.
8. See Doc. No: 00608.
9. These are listed in the index to vol 2 of Dawson Turner and Lewis Weston Dillwyn, The botanist’s guide through England and Wales (London: Phillips and Fardon, 1807).
10. 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: 00618; Doc. No: 00749; Doc. No: 00760.
11. Sir James Edward Smith, Introduction to Physiological & Systematic Botany (London: Longman, Hurst, Reese, Orme, and White, 1807). [See Doc. No: 00569].
12. In boredom.
12. Rear Admiral Charles Feilding (1780-1837), Royal Navy; WHFT's step-father.
13. Caroline Augusta Edgcumbe, née Feilding, Lady Mt Edgcumbe (1808-1881); WHFT's half-sister, and Henrietta Horatia Maria Gaisford, née Feilding (1810-1851), WHFT's half-sister.