Lacock
April 4
My dear Constance
I received Mr Ellacombes <1> plant about ˝ past 9 oclock and sent it immediately to Wilkins, <2> who went out with a lantern and planted it in a pot in the zinc – So all has been done for it that was possible. It is a kind of Pelargonium and its curiosity consists in this, that it is the only kind which grows wild in the northern part of the World. All the others are natives of the Cape of Good Hope, but this one of Asia Minor.
Cut open Ld E. Fitzmaurice’s <3> book. I intended it for the good of the house, not having time to read it myself at present.
Notes:
1. Henry Nicholson Ellacombe (1822–1916), clergyman, Honorary Canon of Bristol, Vicar of Bitton; gardener & author.
2. George Wilkins (b. 1814), gardener at Lacock.
3. Edmond George Petty-Fitzmaurice, 1st Baron (1846–1935), Life of William, Earl of Shelburne, afterwards first Marquess of Lansdowne. With extracts from his papers and correspondence (London: Macmillan and Co., 1875).