Abbotsbury ^<1>
May 4

My dear Henry

As I suppose you have nothing but politics to occupy you morning noon & night I send you by way of change an exterior & interior petal of Tulipa Oculus Solis vera – typus speciei which has flowered here as well as it could have done at Florence – its stem is not above half as high as T. Raddi – its leaves much greener & not glaucous, & its petals red outside as well as in, while fresh, Raddi being colore vitellino ^<2>.

I hear Horatia ^<3> goes to Almack’s ^<4> – but I do not hear of your going – do you go to Loddiges or Colvills-^<5> when I come to town let us make a visit to some of the Nurseries –

The speeches which have amused me most are those of L^d Londonderry ^<6> L^d Ellenborough ^<7> – & M^r Dawson–^<8> I think the opposition will be at least as heterogeneous as the Ministry –

When are you going to Lacock do you still intend to have a garden like a chessboard? Doryanthes excelsa for a King & Yucca gloriosa for Queen I believe there are terraces and Cloisters which would afford a local for a pretty conservatory & Italian garden–^<9> Tell me some thing of your cold journey which I hear spoken of as something if not equal, comparable to Capt [Feildings]^<10>. Here, Verbena triphylla, Metrosideros lanceolata Calla Æthiopica, Teucrium fruticans Cneorum 3coccum^<11>, Amaryllis longifolia & several Ixias Agaves &c have lived out & are shooting again – Oleander I hope to see a stock plant like Myrtles –

Y^r Aff
W F S

I do not yet know when I shall come to town I have written to the Foreign Office & expect an answer tomorrow which may determine me – Who are to be the Under Lessees Ought not Narcissus bulb[o]codium to be rather an Amaryllis or Pancratium? Did I tell you of my new Muscari & Ornithogalums?
Have you got your picture yet?

W. H. F. Talbot Esq
31 Sackville Street

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Notes:

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

2. The colour of veal. [See Doc. No: 00296].

3. Henrietta Horatia Maria Gaisford, née Feilding (1810–1851), WHFT’s half-sister.

4. The exclusive assembly-rooms in King’s Street, St James’s, London.

5. The firm of nurserymen established in Hackney by Conrad Loddiges, run at this time by his son George Loddiges (1786–1846). Colville's, in Kings Road, Chelsea, was established by James Colville (1746-1822) and carried on by his son, James, jnr. (1777-1832) - at its peak, it had 40,000 sq ft under glass.

6. Charles William Vane, 3^rd Marquess of Londonderry (1778–1854).

7. Edward Law, 1^st Earl of Ellenborough (1790–1871). In January 1828, he became Lord Privy Seal in Wellington’s Tory ministry.

8. George Robert Dawson (1790-1856), MP for Londonderry.

9. WHFTS had not yet visited Lacock Abbey. WHFT was just contemplating moving in, and the tennant, John Rock Grosett (1783-1866), finally left in June 1827.

10. Rear Admiral Charles Feilding (1780–1837), Royal Navy; WHFT’s step-father. Text obscured under seal.

11. Tricoccum.