My dear Henry
This letter came from Derbys. <1> & therefore I thought you were coming to town but they know nothing of you in S. St. <2>
I have had a letter from Mr McNeill, <3> advising me of fircones &c from the Mts of Bayazid in Armenia where he also saw a variety of Oriental Plane in the most alpine situations near the snow in August. It may be a new species. I am also expecting seeds & plants from Sierra Leone & Teneriffe
Have you read Coneybeare’s [sic] Lectures? <4> what do you think of the doctrine of probabilities applied to the Indian & Semitic languages? it is at least new.
The Crocus Fitzsimon <5> [sic] sent you proves not to be secotinus but the same as one from Naples speciosus<6> which has flowered at Chelsea – Harriet <7> is getting me some true nudiflorus<8>
Did you ever hear of the West Indian hornets that fly about with fungi growing in them till the vegetable has exhausted all their strength when they die.
I hope you are coming to Dorsetshire too this autumn – since you did not come in the spring – is Caroline <9> to be at Mt Edgcumbe <10> this winter? I have got a new Chinese Jessamine from Mr Anderson <11> which I expect to turn out very fine.
Pray take care of Arum ternuifolium for me & any &cs you can add to it. How did your plants fare that I saw nursing in the hothouse at Bowood. <12>
You were to tell me something more of the Euphorbias &c you raised from my seeds – You are to have some too from Ab– <13>
I have got some parcels here for Mlle Amelina <14> pray tell me what to do with them
Yr Aff
W F S
Notes:
1. Harriot Georgiana Mundy, née Frampton (1806-1886), WHFT’s cousin & sister-in-law, lived near Derby.
2. 31 Sackville Street, London residence of the Feildings, often used as a London base by WHFT.
3. Sir John McNeill (1795–1883), diplomat. He was in Persia from 1835 to 1842. The Talbots knew him in Edinburgh in the 1860s.
4. Probably William Daniel Conybeare (1787–1857), geologist and divine; Conybeare gave the Bampton lectures – important annual lectures on biblical subjects at Oxford University – in 1839. His brother had given these lectures in 1824 but that date is too early for this letter given the reference to Caroline at Mount Edgcumbe.
5. Cornelius Fitzsimmons, Scottish gardener at Lacock Abbey.
6. Crocus speciosus, an autumn crocus native to the Mediterranean.
7. Harriot Georgiana Mundy, née Frampton (1806-1886), WHFT’s cousin & sister-in-law.
8. Crolcus nudikflorus, an autumn crocus native to southern Europe. It was naturalised in Nottinghamshire, where it is the floral emblem, and used to grow in the meadows between the River Trent and Nottingham Castle.
9. Caroline Augusta Edgcumbe, née Feilding, Lady Mt Edgcumbe (1808–1881); WHFT’s half-sister.
10. Mt Edgecumbe, near Plymouth: seat of the Earl of Mt Edgcumbe.
12. Bowood House, nr Calne, Wiltshire, 5 mi NE of Lacock: seat of the Marquess of Lansdowne.
13. Abbotsbury, Dorset: home of William Thomas Horner Fox Strangways.
14. Amélina Petit De Billier, ‘Mamie’, ‘Amandier’ (1798–1876), governess and later close friend of the Talbot family [See Amélina's journal].