Nice
March 30 1825
My dear Henry
I am just arrived – & before I have seen anything here I must tell you of my journey – I had nothing but frost & snow as far of <sic> Lyons & traces of the same to a halffrozen pool two posts this side of Avignon – which being in the plains is rather remarkable. I saw the theatre at Orange, slipping on ice in the sheets, with no appearance of thaw – but the moment one is well inside the bleak mountains between Avignon & Aix the change of climate is wonderful, in fact it only begins there. Aix is quite Italian; & this side Lestrelles, a step further to the South. I saw no signs of vegetable life except green hellebore, here & there till Vienne where instead of primroses I found a striveling violet – Arum Italicum, remanded by the frost, & leaves & stalks & shrubs quite new which I dare say would be very interesting in the season. Dauphiné seems to be an odd mixture of subalpine & meridional botany – I saw box & some of the southern Half evergreen oaks growing together – The Flora here is exceedingly backward – on the Lestrelles I found nothing in profusion but the Erica arborea, of which I think there seem 3 varieties – another heath not in flower – & vulgaris. A strongscented thyme a blue polygala – L. Stœachas <1> – & in a deep glen what must have been Cistus monspeliensis. If it is albidus I see associated with it, it is different from any I have seen in our gardens under that name. I was surprised to find so nearly the same plants from top to bottom. 3 pines – Maritima which I did not expect – & is only on the two lower flanks of the Mt pinaster – & pinea which latter I never saw truly wild before – two varieties of lentiscus – Daphne I believe Cneorum – but all suffrutices not an annual or herbaceous plant to be seen – no meads of Tazetta, <2> in short everything backward all the gardens seem forwarder here than on the South of the Lestrelles.
As I mean to come to the S. of France some other time I shall come down the Rhone in a boat which will be much better than crossing those pebbly deserts of Dauphiny & see the opposite bank which seems more interesting than this.
What an Italian looking place Autun is – & la Creuse d’Aussy must be beautiful in summer. There are some great heights you see from near Orange – which excite my curiosity I can almost tell their stratification by their forms.
And the Mt Ste Victoire you see going into Aix is a very fine mt. Spartium spinosum or villosum I think I see & Euphorbia Characias. The Geology of Lestrelles would be interesting I think if one had time to devote to it – it seems to be old red conglomerate broken up by dykes of micaceous porphyritic gneiss – & of an extreme sterility. The pinaster forest however on this side is very fine. More anon –
Yr affe
W T H F S
I found the roads near St Simphorien very bad & those near Le Luc very good which gave rise to the thought Que St Simphorien <3>N’est qu’un vaurien
Mais que St Luc
Mérite d’être Duc –
Inghilterra
Henry Talbot Esqr
31 Sackville Street
London
Notes:
1. Lavandula stoechas.
2. Narcissus tazetta
3. That St Simphorien/ Is but a ruffian/ But that St Luke/ Deserves to be Duke. ‘Vaurien’, that is, ‘good-for-nothing’.