Normanby <1> Brigg
Lincolnsh
Dear Henry
I have received your letter from Edinburgh via Melbury <2> & Calne You do not seem to have got mine from London – Write to me here where I am waiting for John <3> & shall stay I dare say ten days or a fortnight longer. If you see Dr Hooker <4> as I suppose you will, or write to him, pray ask him if he would send Bertoloni <5> a set of dried specimens of peculiar British plants, which cannot be many – B. has an idea that the mountain plants of Italy, Junci, Cyperacæ &c which are supposed to be identical with these of the North, are not always so, but of course wishes for specimens to decide – we walked about Sarzana one morning talking of this & other botanical subjects – he wishes to hear from you again – Let me know where the Feildings <6> are –
Yr Affte
W F S
Henry Talbot Esq
31 Sackville Street
London
Post office <9>
Newcastle On Tyne
Northumberland
Notes:
1. The home in north Lincolnshire of the Sheffield family. Lady Sheffield was the sister of Lady Ilchester.
2. Melbury, Dorset: one of the Fox Strangways family homes; WHFT was born there.
3. John George Charles Fox Strangways (1803–1859), MP.
4. Sir William Jackson Hooker (1785–1865), Prof & botanist.
5. Prof Antoine Bertoloni (1793–1868), Italian botanist.
6. Lady Elisabeth Theresa Feilding, née Fox Strangways, first m. Talbot (1773 - 12 March 1846), WHFT's mother; and her husband, Rear Admiral Charles Feilding (1780–1837), Royal Navy; WHFT’s step-father.
7. Dr John Nicholl (1797–1853), MP; and his wife, Jane Harriot Nicholl, née Talbot (1796-1874), WHFT's cousin.
8. [Uncertain - see note 7.]
9. Readdressed in another hand.