Redlynch ^<1>
23 Oct

My dear Henry

I do not know where you are, but selon les probabilités, ^<2> not where I direct to you. I have been going to write to you again & again from Abbotsbury ^<3> to tell you of the beauties this fine season has called forth – but not having done so on the spot, the impression has already faded a little by absence.

You have of course been occupied with the comet ^<4> we saw it beautifully but I wish it had been more above the horizon. It is the first real looking comet I ever saw. I want to know why its tail curves like brush if it encounters no resisting motion. Is the tail a reality, or only an effect produced by its light shed upon a material, but without it, invisible æther? I hope to see some interesting reports & observations of it published during the winter with photographs.

The fine summer made everything flower magnificently & has covered the Ilexes & Bays with such crops of fruit as I never saw before – the acorns are in bunches, & bay berries clothe the branches like holly berries. Some odd varieties of oak too are bearing which I never saw before. I hope you have Crocus speciosus – the beauty of autumnal crocuses, & the Saffron – sativus, which does so well with us, tho’ at Spofforth ^<5> it flowered once in 15 years. Tell me what curiosities you have had – love to Ela ^<6> & C^o

Y^r Aff
W^{m <7>}

I dare say you go to Vall’s ^<8> wedding. I wish them joy & think it must please all the family – Is it true that Caroline ^<9> met with an accident at M^t Edgcumbe? ^<10>

The country about here is beautiful this fine weather

---

Notes:

1. A Strangways property in Somerset. The earls of Ilchester were also barons of Redlynch.

2. probably

3. Abbotsbury, Dorset: home of William Thomas Horner Fox Strangways.

4. Probably Donati’s comet. [The first comet known to have been photographed, by W. Usherwood]. Tuttle’s comet also appeared in 1858 but during January/February.

5. The home of the Revd William Herbert before he became Dean of Manchester.

6. Ela Theresa Talbot (1835–1893), WHFT’s 1^st daughter.

7. WFS signed himself thus after succeeding to the earldom.

8. William Henry Edgcumbe, ‘Val’, 4^th Earl Mt Edgcumbe (1832–1917), JP & Ld Steward of the Royal Household; WHFT’s nephew ‘Bimbo’.

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.