[fragment]
Brussels
Feb 18. 1825
My dear Henry
Yours was the first news I got about Florence <1> I believe it is very true & now I want you to recommend me a way to get there – I do not know when I am to be there or what time I shall have allowed for the journey – or whether I go home first – which if there is any delay, I should certainly do in preference to remaining idle here – I do not want to go by the Mt Cenis again – The Simplon & Splugen are impassable & I have only the wide choice between Nice & the Tyrol. Which do you recommend? I have never seen the North & East of Italy & so rather incline for the Tyrol – at least I think so if I start from hence – if I go to England I should probably come out again by Paris & Nice – The Col de Tende & Corniche are temptations – Have you any inclination to go too? This is nearly the belle saison <2> for that country. H. Frampton <3> has received your roots – I do not think you give a very grand account of your plants. They sent me last week from Abbotsbury <4> a Scilla Amæna full blown out of doors, while here it is in the botanic garden only just appearing above ground – it is I believe the only Scilla perfectly without bracteæ. The Mesembryanthemums are in flower there & what is till more remarkable the Olea has already shot out its new branches for this year. Crocus pusillus is also out & a tulip.
Do you know Mr Gally Knight <5> – he is a great friend of the Fazakerleys <6> & travelled in the East with him – he has just left us as also the Wynns <7> of Stutgard – late of Berne & henceforward of Copenhagen – The Botanic garden here is very fair & the gardener intelligent & liberal –
I hope your orchideæ will flower well I shall certainly try to send some from Florence – I dare say the Apennines abound in them The inundations all along the coast have been most dreadful – the mouth of every river from the Scheld to the Elbe has been bouché <8> by a tide from the NW. like that we had in Novr from the S.W of course in Holland the damage has been immense
[letter incomplete]
A Monsieur
Monsieur W. H. F. Talbot
Hotel de la Terrasse
Rue de Rivoli
à Paris
Notes:
1. See Doc. No: 01250. WFS arrived in Florence as Secretary of Legation by April 1825.
2. The summer months.
3. Harriot Georgiana Mundy, née Frampton (1806-1886), WHFT’s cousin & sister-in-law.
4. Abbotsbury, Dorset: home of William Thomas Horner Fox Strangways.
5. Henry Gally Knight (1786–1846), writer on architecture.
6. John Nicholas Fazakerley (1787–1852), MP; and his wife, Hon. Elinor Fazakerley, née Montague (d. 1847).
7. Sir Henry Watkin Williams Wynn (1783–1856), diplomat, and his wife Hester Frances, née Carrington.
8. Stopped up.