Melbury <1>
7 April
Dear Henry
I was near writing to you at Lacock thinking you might be there for no better reason than that I did not know precisely where you were – if you come there – come on here as we avoid London this spring – & you might see Melbury & Abbotsbury <2> in some beauty
I wonder if Lady Liston <3> brought to Milburn <4> any of the plants I remember in her garden at Pera? <5> I brought one or two which remain still at Abbotsbury. Oxalis compressa was a weed in the grass – & the gardener a Greek had the odd task to plant edgings of Iris f œtida every way unsuitable.
I believe you are intimate with the Botanic garden at Edinburgh – if so can you tell me if they part with their plants for money or exchange? I ask because tho’ I have not much to exchange with such a Garden, I think they have a good collection of palms, & if they had duplicates <6> not too large, I should like to propose for one or two, such as Jub œa spectabilis – or the Carolina Chamærops serrulata which Mr McNab <7> must know having botanized in the U. States.
I could offer some bulbs not common & some other plants of which I would send a list –
We have an oldfashioned spring which I hope leads to an oldfashioned summer. a very fine crimson rhodod 10 feet high is in flower near the turret & Triteleia & Milla uniflora – much alike. at Abby – Tritoma Rooperi was the beauty of the season. I have got Flora Azorica <8> – a meagre pamphlet – but of some interest by the brothers Hochstetter – so one species nova <9> is sonorously entitled Cerastium or I forget the genus Hochstetterorum!
Yr affte
Wm
[envelope, flap imprinted "Melbury Dorchester":]
Henry Fox Talbot Esq
Millburn Tower
Edinburgh
Notes:
1. Melbury, Dorset: one of the Fox Strangways family homes; WHFT was born there.
2. Abbotsbury, Dorset: home of William Thomas Horner Fox Strangways.
3. Henrietta Liston, née Marchant (1751-1828).
4. Millburn Tower, Gogar, just west of Edinburgh; the Talbot family made it their northern home from June 1861 to November 1863. It is particularly important because WHFT conducted many of his photoglyphic engraving experiments there. The house had a rich history. Built for Sir Robert Liston (1742-1836), an 1805 design by Benjamin Latrobe for a round building was contemplated but in 1806 a small house was built to the design of William Atkinson (1773-1839), best known for Sir Walter Scott’s Abbotsford. The distinctive Gothic exterior was raised in 1815 and an additional extension built in 1821. Liston had been ambassador to the United States and maintained a warm Anglo-American relationship in the years 1796-1800. His wife, the botanist Henrietta Liston, née Marchant (1751-1828) designed a lavish American garden, sadly largely gone by the time the Talbots rented the house .
Millburn Tower, Gogar, just west of Edinburgh; the Talbot family made it their northern home from June 1861 to November 1863. It is particularly important because WHFT conducted many of his photoglyphic engraving experiments there. The house had a rich history. Built for Sir Robert Liston (1742-1836), an 1805 design by Benjamin Latrobe for a round building was contemplated but in 1806 a small house was built to the design of William Atkinson (1773-1839), best known for Sir Walter Scott’s Abbotsford. The distinctive Gothic exterior was raised in 1815 and an additional extension built in 1821. Liston had been ambassador to the United States and maintained a warm Anglo-American relationship in the years 1796-1800. His wife, the botanist Henrietta Liston, née Marchant (1751-1828) designed a lavish American garden, sadly largely gone by the time the Talbots rented the house .5. The diplomatic quarter of Constantinople. WTFS seems to have been there in 1820. [See Doc. No: 00891].
6. See Doc. No: 08682.
7. James McNab, director of the Botanic Garden, Edinburgh.
8. Moritz Seubert (1818–1878), Christian Ferdinand Hochstetter, and Karl Christian Friedrich Hochstetter, Flora Azorica quam ex collectionibus schedisque Hochstetteri patris et filii elaboravit (Bonn: A. Marcus, 1844). [The title translates ‘Flora of the Azores, from the collections and papers of the Hochstetters, father and son ’].
9. New species.
10. Ela Theresa Talbot (1835–1893), WHFT’s 1st daughter.