Naples
14 Sept
My dear Henry
I send you a packet which may interest you I have some seeds also for you but they will keep
Everybody believes me to be somewhere about the 46th Parallel <1> on my way home which is an erroneous notion – I was much pleased with your list of successes at Lacock & hope it may be encreased – do you cultivate the genus Hibiscus – which I think very handsome tho there is a sameness in the flowers –
I send you some Irises – Dii vortant bene <2> – pray cultivate all the sorts you can get – I. graminea is scarce in England.
Lord Ponsonby <3> has been dawdling so long we do not know what is the meaning of it – as soon as he comes I have leave to start.
My love to Caroline <4> & Horatia <5>
Yr Affte
W F S
Notes:
1. The approximate latitude of Lyon, on WTHFS’s usual route between Italy and Britain.
2. May the gods cause to prosper (what I do), being the first part of a Latin expression.
3. John Ponsonby, Viscount Ponsonby. Viscount Ponsonby had been appointed envoy at Naples in June 1832, but he still had not arrived in Naples by mid-September. His mission ended on 9 November 1832.
4. Caroline Augusta Edgcumbe, née Feilding, Lady Mt Edgcumbe (1808–1881); WHFT’s half-sister.
5. Henrietta Horatia Maria Gaisford, née Feilding (1810–1851), WHFT’s half-sister.