July 4.

My dear Henry

You will say – and truly – that it “can’t rain but it must pour” when you receive yet another missive from me – but after thinking every year since I brought this Fern from Buxton (wild there on the Limestone) that it was growing wrong from not liking our soil, it suddenly struck me yesterday that I believe it is all right – So now I want very much your opinion and also please its proper name? –

The other thing came from poor Mary Talbot or Isabella ^<1> – but the Birds have carried off the Tally – as Moore at Abb. ^<2> used to assure Uncle W^{m <3>} was the case! so now I do not know its name. It is a perennial and I dearly love those oldfashioned things –

After my letter was gone I bethought myself that Sinologue must come from Sinensis (as applied to Primulas &cc) and find I am right – I am afraid you are not precisely a Sinologue ^<4> – but is not there a synonymous word for the Assyrian language –

N. & E. ^<5> come home today, but are off again about the 13^th. I suppose C. M^t E. ^<6> has left you or I sh^d send her a message of thanks for her letter – part of w^ch requires explanation [illegible]

Y^r af^te
H G M^y

Lady Ilchester ^<7> writes me word that the Baby has been Christened “Giles Stephen Holland” ^<8> – M^rs Strangways & L^y H^{d <9>} the two Godmothers – L^d Digby and L^d Dartrey ^<10> the God Fathers. I sh^d have put Stephen first but as he will be called Stavordale, ^<11> of course, it matters less. –

---

Notes:

1. Mary Thereza Talbot (1795–1861), WHFT’s cousin and Isabella Catherine Franklen, née Talbot (1804–1874).

2. Either William Moore, gardener's assistant at Lacock Abbey. Abbotsbury, Dorset: home of William Thomas Horner Fox Strangways, Or Nurse Moore. [See Doc. No: 04867].

3. William Thomas Horner Fox Strangways, 4^th Earl of Ilchester (1795–1865), botanist, art collector & diplomat.

4. The word would be Assyrioloque (which is actually analogous rather than synonymous - see Doc. No: 00363

5. Francis Noel Mundy (1833–1903), WHFT’s nephew, and his wife, Emily Maria Georgiana Cavendish (1845-1929).

6. Caroline Augusta Edgcumbe, née Feilding, Lady Mt Edgcumbe (1808–1881); WHFT’s half-sister.

7. Lady Mary Eleanor Anne, née Dawson (1852-1935), wife of Henry Edward Fox-Strangways, 5^th Earl of Ilchester (1847-1905).

8. Giles Stephen Holland Fox-Strangways, 6^th Earl of Ilchester (1874–1959), landowner and historian.

9. Mrs Amelia Fox Strangways, née Marjoribanks (d 1886), widow of John George Charles Fox Strangways (1803-1859), MP; and Mary Augusta Fox, née Coventry (1812-1889), Lady Holland.

10. Edward St Vincent Digby, Lord Digby (b. 1809), and Richard Dawson, Earl of Dartrey (b. 1817).

11. Giles Stephen Holland Fox Strangways (31 May 1874 -1959), 6^th Earl Ilchester and Lord Stavordale from 1905.