London
Aug. 22
My Dear Wm
I shall be sorry to miss you, but I fear that we must leave Town on the 27th But you will find Caroline <1> & Ernestine <2> at No 6 Pount Pont St Belgravia <3>. I hope you will take a look at the Wild flowers of Vancouvers island exhibited by an amateur, in the Great Exhibition <4>. They are some of them very like English ones – others different. I recognised the genera Brodiæa. Sisyrinchium grandiflorum<,> Bartsia, Castilleja, Dodecatheon, & some unknown forms. Look at the photograph of an immense tree (Wellingtonia?) taken in a forest in California by an amateur. This is in the U. States court.
Long ago I used to find Pulsatilla vernalis in Rutlandsh <5>. growing with Astragalus hypoglottis. But never saw Apennina wild in England – nor ranunculoides.
Your affte
H. F. Talbot
Notes:
1. Caroline Augusta Edgcumbe, née Feilding, Lady Mt Edgcumbe (1808–1881); WHFT’s half-sister
2. Ernestine Emma Horatia Edgcumbe (1843-1925), WHFT’s niece
3. The part of London near Belgrave Square.
4. The International Exhibition of 1862, in London.
5. In 1816, when WHFT was being tutored at Normanton, Rutlandshire.