Penrice ^<1>
Monday

My dear Henry

On looking at my pocketbook I find I cannot possibly be at Lacock the 18^th so I write to give you notice in order that I may not be in the way of your going to town which I hear you contemplate – tho if your garden is advancing at all in proportion to what I see here it must contain enough to detain you. Pray have your orchideæ drawn – they are so rare in England that the opportunity should not be lost.

Did the Colchicum montanum I sent you flower this winter? I was in hopes you might have bestowed some of it here but I do not find it. I have had it in contemplation to make a Synopsis (in one sheet each) of Tulips & Cyclamens if I could find anybody to draw & colour the accompanying figures – Are C. & Ho. ^<2> equal to such a task? I find the Eu– portlandica is quite different in habit from Pithyusa which grows about Genoa & with which the Italian botanists confound it. & that again with Myrsinites. I hope you cultivate all these worthy spurges.

I am going to visit Margam & Penlline ^<3> in my way & stop at Clifton ^<4> to see M^r Harfords & M^r Miles’s pictures & Miller’s garden & the churches at Bristol & Salter’s garden at Bath. Kit ^<5> goes to Melbury ^<6> Wednesday – Charlotte ^<7> has not been very well these two days & she is doubting whether to be married at Bath London Melbury or anywhere I think Bath very well for a watering place match or London for an Almacks ^<8> one but I should think Penrice best for a Glamorganshire one.

Your Affte
W F S

Charlotte seems decided to go abroad after her marriage I think she will enjoy it exceedingly – Let us sketch out a tour for her

I leave this Thursday –

Swansea Feb^y fifteen 1830. Chris^er Cole. ^<9>
Henry Talbot Esq^r
Lacock Abbey
Chippenham

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Notes:

1. Penrice Castle and Penrice House, Gower, Glamorgan, 10 mi SW of Swansea: home of Christopher Rice Mansel Talbot.

2. 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.

3. Margam Park, Glamorgan: home of Christopher Rice Mansel Talbot, and probably Penllyn, between Merthyr Mawr and Cowbridge.

4. Clifton, Bristol, on the Avon Gorge.

5. Christopher Rice Mansel Talbot (1803–1890), immensely wealthy landowner, mathematician & politician; WHFT’s Welsh cousin.

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

7. Charlotte Louisa 'Charry' Traherne, née Talbot (1800–1880), WHFT’s cousin. The wedding took place in April.

8. Almack’s Assembly Rooms, founded by William Almack in 1765.

9. Sir Christopher Cole (1770–1836), Captain, MP & naval officer.