Paris
October 7th 1822
My dear Henry,
I am delighted at the hope I have of seeing you at Florence in the beginning of next month, I cannot tell you how much I enjoy the thought of it & how much I expect to say & do when we meet – We left England a week ago & tomorrow move on southwards to Lyons, Grenoble, Turin, Genoa, & eventually Florence after which we shall go to Rome & Naples – we intend returning by the Tyrol & Switzerland & then down the Rhine.
I was so much delighted with all I saw in the spring that I expect to be half crazy when I first catch a glimpse of the Alps after them the plains of Piermont. Give my love to Aunt Lily. <1> I don’t know how she will receive me after my ungrateful silence but I really have done nothing for the last Twelvemonth –
I shall expect to hear from you at either Turin or Genoa that I may know how to find you at Florence &c, &c, – I hope I shall find a good many things plants before I see you, which I shall expect you will help me to make out, the only Book of Botany I have with me is the Hortus Kewensis <2> which I fear is too learned for me at least it is very little help to me – My Love to dear Caroline & Horatia <3> who I shall be delighted to see tho’ I suppose they have outgrown my remembrance of them &
your affte Cousin
Jane H. Nicholl
A Monsieur
Monsieur W. H. Talbot
Post Restante
Firenza
Italie
Paris
[illegible] 7 October
Notes:
1. Lady Elisabeth Theresa Feilding, née Fox Strangways, first m Talbot (1773–1846), WHFT’s mother.
2. Probably John Hill Hortus Kewensis; sistens herbas exoticas, indigenasque rariores, in area botanica … apud Kew cultas (London: 1768), or William Aiton, Hortus Kewensis; or, a Catalogue of the plants cultivated in the Royal Botanic Garden at Kew (London: George Nicol, 1789).
3. 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.