[The wrapper for this letter is in a private collection:]
W.H. F. Talbot Eqr
31 Sackville Stt
London
[pencil note on wrapper in WHFT's hand:] Jane. Oct 1. 1826.
__________
Merthyrmawr <1>
Octr 1st
My dear Henry,
I can have patience no longer & so I write this note to hope I may hear a few lines in return to say you are alive which I hardly know to be the case I cannot think why you have never written to any of us since you returned from Corfù I expected at least a list of your acquisitions - I have been settling & arranging my collection & attempting a catalogue of all I possess which has fully imployed my time since I went to Penrice <2> & is not yet completed. This year has been a very bad one for the Garden but I think we shall now have a second blossoming of a great number of things A good many of yours & William's seeds were the only plants in flower for a length of time - We have got the Commelina tuberosa in blow here which is beautiful - The Calceolaria corimbosa [sic] - Coreopsis tinctoria & Skysanthus [sic] purpureus <3> are great acquisitions & make the Greenhouse & Borders very gay - Do you know the plant called Louisia [sic] it is a tender Greenhouse annual with thorns or rather stings which remain in your hand if you touch the plant it is beautiful but the whole plant has a weedy look. Tell me your plans.
Your aff
Jane H. Nicholl
PS.
Sir C. Lemon <4> wrote word that Aunt Lily <5> was very ill pray write by return of Post & let us hear how she is for I am very anxious [illegible deletion] about her -
Send the letter directed (under cover to Sir J. N. <6>
Merthyr mawr
Cardiff
Notes:
1. Merthyr Mawr, Glamorgan, on River Ogwr.
2. Penrice Castle and Penrice House, Gower, Glamorgan, 10 mi SW of Swansea: home of Christopher Rice Mansel Talbot.
3. There is a genus 'Skytanthus', but there is no such genus as 'Skytanthus purpureus'. Probably a phonetic slip for 'Schizanthus', but there is no published species 'Schizanthus purpureus' (there is an S. violaceus from Chili, so probably it was an informal name that never got published.
4. Sir Charles Lemon (1784-1868), politician & scientist; WHFT's uncle.
5. Lady Elisabeth Theresa Feilding, née Fox Strangways, first m Talbot (1773-1846), WHFT's mother.
6. Sir John Nicholl, father-in-law of Jane Harriet Nicholl.