Abbotsbury <1>
Thursday
My dear Henry
I wish you could have staid longer in Dorsetsh – to have spent a day or two here The late frosts have done scarcely any harm to the garden & the terrace has been delightful quite like Nice – There are in flower Crocus pusillus in quantity both florentine & Neapolitan – The Pisan has not appeared – the musk hyacinth, a few grape do quantities of stock & wallflower & Arabis & Iberis sempervirens a favorite plant of mine Euphorbia Characias – Coronillas – snowdrops & Tussilago fragrans – Arbutus hybrida – one Narcissus unicolor, very sweet – Pyrus japonica beautiful. Rhododendron atrovirens on the point of flowering & Primula sinensis out of doors. One Colchicum variegatum – evidently out of season – how are your Montana Euph. dendroides looks dim but is not slain. I am curious to know how your Cupressus Lusitanica stands the winter before I trust mine out. Cyclamen coum is in blow out of doors.
Pray rallegrate <2> Orazina <3> on the eloquent Polish Manifesto it reads somewhat better than that of Nicholas. I know that it is so far from being got up for the occasion that the different topics of complaint are what I have heard of for years both in the country & before & since I was there from a great variety of people. A Pole I met at Naples told me the accounts in the Annual Register of various periods in the former troubles of the Kingdom in 1770 – 1789 – 1794 – were very correctly given in general – which it is well to know as they may be generally referred to. The Petersburg paper evidently leaves a possibility of accommodation provided the honour of the Czar is saved – & that the world are humbugged so as to believe he is not in the wrong –
O Connell <4> is going a great pace – He is determined nobody shall do any thing for Ireland but himself – I doubt his conciliating the monied interest by his run on the Banks – I think he has thrown himself overboard – Pray give us an account of the Royal fete whenever it takes place – we are country mice & want news from Court. Is Lacock or Sackville St <5> uppermost now? What a cry they make for ballot! <6> before anybody knows how it would act – The only proof of its necessity is in having tried reform without it & finding it fail. This supposes at least one previous trial – then if wanted it will pass quietly – if not it will be at once rejected. Besides Reform is not the simple adoption of a principle as in the Catholic question <7>– it requires a laborious examination of detail, some experiment, some time, & probably amendment before its completion.
I find Othonna cheirifolia, Convolv. Cneorum – Linum arboreum Silene fruticosa, Centauria ragusina, some Cape Gladioli &c stand out very well – Allium chamæmoly is in flower I think I have a variety with smooth leaves. Also Saxifraga sarmentosa, Camp. fragilis, Iris Sisyrinchium, & Origan – Dictamnus Romulea ramiflora was not blown when the last accounts came from Melbury <8> –
Yr Affe
W F S
Henry F. Talbot Esqr
Brighton
Laycock Abbey <9>
Chippenham
Notes:
1. Abbotsbury, Dorset: home of William Thomas Horner Fox Strangways.
2. Congratulate.
3. Henrietta Horatia Maria Gaisford, née Feilding (1810–1851), WHFT’s half-sister.
4. Daniel O’Connell (1775–1847), politician, Irish nationalist.
5. 31 Sackville Street, London residence of the Feildings, often used as a London base by WHFT.
6. Public demand for reform of the franchise ran high in the period before the Reform Act was eventually passed in 1832. The first reform bill was introduced in March 1831.
7. Catholic emancipation, the achievement of full civil rights for Roman Catholics, including the right to sit in Parliament. This was conceded in 1829 after Daniel O’Connell was elected MP.
8. Melbury, Dorset: one of the Fox Strangways family homes; WHFT was born there.
9. Readdressed possibly in Lady Elisabeth’s hand.