[this is written on the same sheet as notes from Lady Elisabeth: Doc. No: 00949 - and Horatia: Doc. No: 01082]
Naples.
Friday 20th May 1823.
My dear Henry
I wrote to you in answer to your last letter, <1> which I directed to Florence, & have been expecting one from you, for two or three days past. – At Salerno, we went to see a very curious acqueduct [sic], of light, gothic architecture; they told us it was made by the Devil, & that it had been there since the beginning of the world. – I found near it a very curious flower; you may imagine a plant about a foot & a half high, with leaves in the shape of groundsel, only a great deal larger, & covered with large thorns; the blossom is exactly like that of a potatoe [sic], & the same colour, (lilac) the stem also is covered with thorns. – At Pæstum I found a flower that might appear to the vulgar eye, like a dandelion, only of a lovely pink; I saw there also some beautiful pink Convolvolus. – At Mola di Gaeta, near Cicero’s <2> villa, I found a species of Cerinthe like that we saw at Caracalla’s <3> baths; the difference was, that the blossom or bell, was red near the calyx, & the rest yellow; [illustration] Addio mio caro Enrico <4>, believe me always your affectionate sister.
Caroline Augusta Feilding.
P.S. If you go to Genoa, pray go & see Angioj <5>. –Monr
Mr W. H. F. Talbot
gentilhomme Anglois
Poste Restante
Nizza Maritima
Nice Maritime
Etats Sardes
Notes:
1. Letter not located.
2. Cicero (106–43 BC), Roman orator and rhetorical scholar.
3. Nickname for the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius Severus Antoninus (188–217).
4. Goodbye my dear Henry
5. See Doc. No: 01116.