Penrice <1>
June 21
My dear Henry
I think the Gilia tricolor a very pretty annual and I shall be very grateful for a pinch of seed when it is ripe, pray don’t forget that. I have been longing for ages for a root of the Allium sub-hirsutum, you did once promise I should have one but alas I never got it! I saw some of the flowers from Lacock & I long, more than ever for it pray set it down in the Tablet of your memory; you owe me something for not once coming to see me when I was in Town don’t forget that. – I am glad Uncle Wm <2> had such a prosperous Journey to Calais, I conclude he will soon reach his journey’s end. – Isabella <3> is staying here with me she is pretty well & the childn are very entertaining indeed, they are almost as fond of the sands as we used to be, in former days. – This has been charming weather for the gardens & every thing is sweet & charming I work hard every day trying to have things put tidy and tied up properly in Mammas <4> absence; we have a profusion of Roses & pinks which I delight in particularly after having been so long in Town.
Pray remember me most kindly to my Cousin & believe me
Yours affly
Mary T Talbot
I am very glad to hear the Bath Waters agree with Horatia <5> she must have been suffering a great deal I am sure, but I hope she will soon be well again. –
Our Lathyrus grandiflora is magnificent. We have some dark Nasturtiums which are handsome enough I think as they incline to a crimson colour. Do you know the Campanula dichotoma, it is a very pretty one, I think an annual as we have lost it. –
Notes:
1. Penrice Castle and Penrice House, Gower, Glamorgan, 10 mi SW of Swansea: home of Christopher Rice Mansel Talbot.
2. William Thomas Horner Fox Strangways, 4th Earl of Ilchester (1795–1865), botanist, art collector & diplomat.
3. Isabella Catherine Franklen, née Talbot (1804–1874).
4. Lady Mary Lucy Cole, née Strangways, first m. Talbot (1776–1855), WHFT’s aunt.
5. Henrietta Horatia Maria Gaisford, née Feilding (1810–1851), WHFT’s half-sister.