Melbury ^<1>

Dear Henry

We are glad you have found out Hendersons ^<2> – I wish I had known it before I would have troubled you with an order for him.

As you are a lover of wild tulips I must tell you of a discovery – There have been here for years some tulips which first came from a garden at Evershot ^<3> & which I can only describe as being a 3 fold hybrid apparently. It ^<4> is of a brilliant crimson, petals pointed, with a black & yellow eye, the yellow very broad, leaves waved glaucous ciliated, scape smooth – anthers stamens broad short, germ cylindrical columnar style large & over hanging – I wait with impatience to take up its bulb to see if it is woolly hairy or smooth.

Have you seen the new Rhododendrons – We shall be in town in a fortnight or so I say to my great regret. They excel here in scar<let> ^<5> anemonies <sic> –

Yr aff

W F S

H Talbot Esq
31 Sackville St

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Notes:

1. Melbury, Dorset: one of the Fox Strangways family homes; WHFT was born there.

2. Arthur Henderson & Company, nurserymen, London.

3. A village near Melbury.

4. Written over ‘they’.

5. Text written off at the edge of page.