29 June

Dear Henry

I hope you got the last letter I sent to Basle I have been to M^r Wallis ^<1> who was not here when you were & I recommend you to have the Correggio ^<2> done by him his colouring is so very Correggiesque & he has made that Master his particular study & once made a copy of the very picture in the tribune for Mrs Otway Cave whose daughter H. Murray ^<3> is going to marry so you might perhaps get a sight of it in London – he asks 40 Louis – perhaps the Italian would do it cheaper, but you sh^d encourage English artists particularly when they are the best & you pay only half the duty on importation – I think I shall get 2 heads of S. Joseph & the dates done by him He has also an Ezekiel ^<4> which he will not sell – but would copy it for 30 Louis as he did for Sir W. Chatterton ^<5> – I have not yet decided which is best – his or Colzi’s for 25 Ls. Nocchi wants to know if you take the Biliverti in tondo for 50 L.s Colzi has a fine Vandyk ^<6> for 20 but one does not come to Italy to buy Vandyks – M^r Irvine tells me the portrait of Scamoeri[?] by Domenichino ^<7> for 100£s is really very cheap good – & the man has a capital specimen of Mengs ^<8> Thallasson & I think we shall get around the Marchesa ^<9> she now says she has some more good pictures in a loft somewhere. I found at Cauggi Chironia maritima (yellow), Linum nodi florum, & the Lathyrus in ripe seed – not the least articulated & having several flowers on a stalk therefore not cornutus which has but one & oval leafits [sic] At Pisa I found Helianthemum Tuberaria, or plantagineum – Fumaria – but not Arabicum which Savi ^<10> promised me. Scrophularia canina, Dianthus attenuatus very pretty & distinct a linear leaved Teucrium with dirty white flowers, Satureia montana very sweet, Quercus suber – an Arabis very like collina V. hybrida – Samolus valeranus. The least interesting of plants sedum stellatum & sempervivoides but deserving its synonym of altissimum – Savi shewed me Lilium tenuifolium a beautiful little plant, Arenaria montana which sh^d be grandiflora & Camp. ^<11> of that name – all from Siberia – I have had seeds of all at Melbury ^<12> – They give one a desire to see the [illegible] At Volterra & M^r Leckies the country is full of grass & woods & water but not a flower – to my disappointment, more noble than Linum tenuifolium & C. medium the air perfumed with Lonicera Etrusca very appropriate to the antiqua sede ^<13>s I shall certainly go again to Volterra some day.

Dr Kane who seems a very good English Botanist denies that Orobus tuberosus of this country is ours – which I think you doubted If you find a true specimen in the North or Seeds send it me to enlighten Raddi, ^<14> O. atropurpureus is in flower in horto, ^<15> very singular, & I have got A. Lathyroides today from Melbury beautiful of which I gave Jane ^<16> once a specimen from Irkutsk I have found Melampyrum cristatum for the first time.

Y^rs
W T H F S

D^r K. says there is another difference between our Habenaria & the English – w^ch has 2 leaves & a bractea whole. This has a bractea large enough to be a 3^d leaf – but thinks it not sufficient to make a species. I do. I have good acc^ts of Mary ^<17> at Penrice ^<18> & of Sir C. Lemon ^<19> who is going there from Cornwall – write soon to me

Svizzera
a Mons^r
Mon^r W. H. F. Talbot
Poste restante
Basle.

W. Fox Strangways

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Notes:

1. Probably George Augustus Wallis (1770-1847), Scottish born painter resident in Florence who also was an art dealer and served as a representative of art dealers.

2. Antonio Allegri (Correggio) (1494–1534).

3. Henry Murray (1800–31), brother of the late Caroline Leonora, wife of the 3rd Earl of Ilchester. He married the Hon Catherine Otway Cave.

4. Possibly a copy of Raphael’s Vision of Ezekiel (in the Pitti Palace).

5. Sir William Abraham Chatterton, of Castle Mahon, County Cork.

6. Sir Anthony Van Dyck (1599–1641), painter.

7. Zampieri Domenichino (or Domenico) (1581–1641), Bolognese painter.

8. Antony Raphael Mengs (1728–1779), German painter, director of the Vatican school of painting.

9. The Marchesa Grimaldi. [See Doc. No: 05083].

10. Gaetano Savi (1769–1844), author of Trattato degli alberi della Toscana (Florence: G. Piatti, 1811).

11. Campanula.

12. Melbury, Dorset: one of the Fox Strangways family homes; WHFT was born there.

13. Ancient seat.

14. Joseph (Giuseppe) Raddi (1770–1829), Italian botanist.

15. In the garden.

16. Jane Harriot Nicholl, née Talbot (1796–1874).

17. Mary Thereza Talbot (1795–1861), WHFT’s cousin.

18. Penrice Castle and Penrice House, Gower, Glamorgan, 10 mi SW of Swansea: home of Christopher Rice Mansel Talbot.

19. Sir Charles Lemon (1784–1868), politician & scientist; WHFT’s uncle. His wife had recently died.