5 feb

Dear Henry

I am happy the orchideæ thrive with you & Euphorbiæ I hope too – My banker is Hoare but if at any time you repent the bargain I am ready to take the copy off your hands M^r Kirkup says it is the finest copy of any picture he has seen in Italy I should like to have a copy by Wallis ^<1> of all Correggio’s ^<2> pictures. Your idea of Colchica is correct. Bertoloni ^<3> to whom y^r letter is sent – considers there are but 2 real species – C. foliosum & C. nudum – & their varieties the similar species or genera are so rare I never could compare them. pray try & get from the Bot garden at Oxford or anywhere, the mesenderiform green Colchicum with long petals folia cum floribus ^<4> Viviani ^<5> has promised me bulbs of C. montanum [illegible] I saw C. alpinum in y^t swiss herbarium under that name. It grows on the tops of the Genoese M^ts & montanum near the base It is a bad time for roots of hardy plants their [permeatatn?] ^<6> has begun & they are pushing dry roots kept in the house are as late here as in England but as I am likely to stay the spring out at least I will eradicate on a great scale – I will send seed too Cyc ^<7> roots dry up & seed grows well & abundantly I had just got a notice from the contessa ^<8> about her pictures & saw her last night at a ball – C^t Ludolf is her incaricato. ^<9> If I had capital I would lay out 5000 £ sterl in pictures & make a perfect historical collection from Cimabue to Mengs ^<10> & sell it for double to the National gallery for they buy nothing The outlay would hardly be felt as a good collection can only by picked up by degrees I am making a collection of Giottos &c – I think Caroline ^<11> is an admirer of Giotto I have got a few sketches very good – of pictures which by the same artists & in the same style would cost hundreds. One can not buy many of these as there are but few – when well known & of famous pictures they are tolerably dear, but others equally good are sometimes found in a corner for nothing –

I am glad you are in town as I can send enclosures without ruining you –

Y^r aff
W F S

The fields are now full of aconites – I recommend you to buy a thousand as also Crocuses Anemones & suchlike as are cheap at country gardens & people y^r woods & pleasure ground also with Anemone apennina & ranunculoides & Pyrolæ & andromedæ in quantity also ornithogalum Kit ^<12> is at Naples I have sent him y^r letter – I fancy he will have his yacht round to Leghorn in the Spring in which case I shall ask him to take you a cargo if he is homeward bound – & some for Penrice ^<13>

H. Talbot Esq^r
31. Sackville Street
London

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Notes:

1. Probably George Augustus Wallis (1770-1847), Scottish born painter resident in Florence who also was an art dealer and served as a representative of art dealers.

2. Antonio Allegri (Correggio) (1494–1534), Italian painter.

3. Prof Antoine Bertoloni (1793–1868), Italian botanist.

4. The leaves with the flowers.

5. Domenico Viviani (1772–1840), botanist.

6. Possibly for ‘permeation’.

7. Cyclamen.

8. Marchesa [not Contessa] Grimaldi. [See Doc. No: 01563, Doc. No: 01450].

9. Representative.

10. Antony Raphael Mengs (1728–1779), German painter.

11. Caroline Augusta Edgcumbe, née Feilding, Lady Mt Edgcumbe (1808–1881); WHFT’s half-sister.

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

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