My dear Henry

I am glad you are so near home as Paris but I expected you over before this time – I shall be at Abbotsbury ^<1> all the next fortnight – the Talbots ^<2> are now at Bath but coming into Dorsetshire for Christmas so I think your best chance of seeing toute la famille en bloc ^<3> is to come straight down to Melbury ^<4> about that hospitable Season Mary & Jane ^<5> you will see in town M^r Buckland ^<6> wants very much to talk to you concerning the Pyramids he has been making an interesting tour in the Hebrides & North of Scotland – he is going to write to the Lemons ^<7> at Nice to tell them what to look for He has some idea of geologising there himself next Summer –

If you go to any good gardens about Paris pray ask to see the Cheirostemon – the Paraguay tea (an Ilex) & Salvia splendens

M^r Browne^<8> enquired after you the other day at M^r Lamberts ^<9> he is just returned from a rapid tour in Italy where he ought to have staid longer – he saw Mauri ^<10> at Paris Have you seen Vivianis ^<11> new work Pray enquire for Olea fragrans with red flowers which I hear exists at Paris – if anywhere in the garden of M. Cels – I hope you have collected some seeds –

Yr Aff
W T H F S

Do you understand the polarisation of light – M^r Buckland shewed me some of D^r Brewsters ^<12> experiments for detecting or distinguishing white topaz white amethyst & white crystal

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Notes:

1. Abbotsbury, Dorset: home of William Thomas Horner Fox Strangways.

2. The family in Wales.

3. The whole family together.

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

5. Mary Thereza Talbot (1795–1861), WHFT’s cousin, and Jane Harriot Nicholl, née Talbot (1796–1874).

6. William Buckland (1784–1856), Dean of Westminster & scientist.

7. Sir Charles Lemon (1784–1868), politician & scientist; WHFT’s uncle and his family.

8. Frances John Browne (1754-1833), of Frampton, Dorset, MP and friend of CRM Talbot.

9. Aylmer Bourke Lambert (1761–1842), botanist.

10. Ernesto Mauri (1791–1836), Italian botanist.

11. Domenico Viviani (1772–1840), botanist. In 1824 he published the following works in Genova: Florae libycae specimen: sive, Plantarum enumeratio Cyrenaicam, Pentapolim, Magnae Syrteos desertum et regionem tripolitanam incolentium quas ex siccis speciminibus delineavit, descripsit et ære insculpi curavit; Florae Corsicae specierum novarum vel minus cognitarum diagnosis: quam in Florae Italicae fragmenti alterius prodromum; Florae libycae specimen, sive, Plantarum enumeratio Cyrenaicam, Pentapolim, Magnae Syrteos desertum et regionem tripolitanam incolentium quas ex siccis speciminibus delineavit.

12. Sir David Brewster (1781–1868), Scottish scientist & journalist.