Hague
July 12 1824

My dear Henry

Fortunately I had not answered your Vienna letter which according to your directions I must have directed to Baden ^<1> – but I thought it as well to wait to hear when you got there – I am less surprised at your giving up Baden than at your chusing Munich – which as far as I recollect of it struck me as dull in appearance & the country round it ugly & moory – & void of variety – much inferior to Swabia, if that name is not yet forgotten in Germany You would have done better in my opinion to [text missing] fixed your headquarters at Vienna or its Baden & have made excursions into Hungary, Bohemia the Styrian alps &c. You did not allow time for advice to reach you or I should have suggested it to you You asked if ever I had been to the Carpathians I went rapidly thro a part of them & would very much recommend them to you I believe their Flora is very interesting & that many Russian & oriental plants begin their habitats there.

It is also a very curious country for Geology & the Scenery is very wild & singular tho not Alpine – better than Apennine – at least than what the great roads shew you of Apennine scenery. The inhabitants, towns, languages, castles, costumes are also very peculiar & very much varied – the Climate is like that of a concave Mirror on a vast scale a dry sandy plain surrounded with mountains much hotter in Summer than any part of Germany, but too cold in Winter for Italian cultivation the groups of mountains are some of the most picturesque I ever saw – Much more so than in Italy in general, but the rocks, & close scenery are very inferior – to say nothing of climate & civilisation which add so much – You might then have done easily what I should have proposed to you before – coming westward by Silesia Dresden Carlsbad the Hartz & the Midland parts of Germany which are I believe some of the finest of the country.

Tenore ^<2> is on his way to England ( John ^<3> writes me word.) I have therefore written to him at the Hort: Soc: ^<4> & to Fischer ^<5> of Petersburg who is I believe already in London – I have some thoughts of tripping over in the dampship ^<6> to see their meeting. Tenores fugax was different from his I. Sisyrinchium in his own garden I can bear witness, what it may be on M^te Pollino I don’t know. The Gov^r at Malta has a sort of Botanic or rather Colonial or Officinal ^<7> Garden which may turn out a good thing but it will suit hot plants only. Sicily or Candia would comprehend Alpine ones. John says he saw on Etna a yellow lily in abundance but it would not dry – I suppose it must have been an asphodel or Hemerocallis. I found Verb: phœn. ^<8> only twice in Russia but in two such different places (& which is odd, in comp^y with the same plants) that it might grow anywhere. If you have no better Authority than Persoon ^<9> for Prim. ^<10> Cortusoides being Siberian I think yours may still be it –

H^t F. ^<11> says many of your seeds are up – Lycopsis bullata in flower – I went to Leyden but the Prof. was absent & the plants are only numbered instead of named – which enabled a stupid gardener to deceive me with wrong names till he came to the blue Camp. ^<12> Medium which he would have to be lactiflora there was a Ver. persica ^<13> do you know it – very like Buxb: & perhaps the same as V. filiformis do you know Persoons Cucubalus maritimus

There is an odd collection of plants on the Downs here – Orobanche Caryophyllacea in plenty – Cucubalus Silene otites – Erysimum cheiranthoides & another with pinnate leaves & minute flowers – Hippoph<æ> ^<14> & a very odd half bushy Sonchus or Hieracium (if they are milky –) – & a blue strong leaved grass looking like very tropical the Dutch say it is like Africa. Write often now you are so near –

Y^r Aff
W T H F S

Write to John at Naples & fix him in a Plan he has for spending the summer at Venice & Milan & in visiting their nearest Alps & ending by Munich He says he wrote to M^r F. ^<15> at Venice –

A Monsieur
Monsieur H. Talbot

Munich

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Notes:

1. Baden, Germany. The Baden mentioned further below is near Vienna.

2. Michel Tenore (1780–1861), Italian botanist & traveller.

3. John George Charles Fox Strangways (1803–1859), MP.

4. Horticultural Society of London.

5. See Doc. No: 00426, Doc. No: 00790.

6. Steamship.

7. Pharmaceutical.

8. Verbascum Phoenicium.

9. Christian Hendrik Persoon (1755–1837), botanist.

10. Primula.

11. Harriot Georgiana Mundy, née Frampton (1806-1886), WHFT’s cousin & sister-in-law.

12. Campanula.

13. Veronica persica, and below, Buxbaumii and filiformis].

14. Written off the edge of page.

15. Rear Admiral Charles Feilding (1780–1837), Royal Navy; WHFT’s step-father.