Abb <1> -
17 Novr
My dear Henry
I hear you are alone - you did not answer my last letter <2> - did you go to Carclew? <3> I was sorry to miss you & Whewel [sic]<4> at Bowood, <5> I shd have heard whether the Spanish eclipse <6> answered his expectations as well as yours. I want to see an official account of it, & to know what the results are.
Can you not run down here for a day or two & see the state of the garden after the worst winter & summer ever known? & take the chance of meeting the Llewelyns <7> on the 1st Decr.
I am pleased among the wreck of plants to see that last winter did not kill every thing. The summer I fancy has starved nearly as much as the winter froze. It is odd so wet a season has allowed the formation of such seeds as Illiciums, Drimys, Chimonanthus, Camellias, Jessamines, & other rarities An orange berried Cotoneaster is handsome. Bulbs seem to have suffered or to be retarded very much. Five specimens of Agave have survived - & some dwarf palms - & cacti - Some of my choice ferns are died off - which is disheartening. Dianella in berry is very pretty.
The weather is changeable but very mild lately.
Yr Affte
Wm
Notes:
1. Abbotsbury, Dorset: home of William Thomas Horner Fox Strangways.
2. Presumably Doc. No: 08218.
3. Carclew, Cornwall, 3 mi N of Penryn: seat of Sir Charles Lemon.
4. Rev William Whewell (1794-1866), Master of Trinity College, Cambridge, Professor and natural philosopher. See Doc. No: 05337.
5. Bowood House, nr Calne, Wiltshire, 5 mi NE of Lacock: seat of the Marquess of Lansdowne.
6. The solar eclipse of 18 July 1860, observed by WHFT in Spain. See Doc. No: 08157.
7. Emma Thomasina Llewelyn, née Talbot (1806-1881), photographer; WHFT's Welsh cousin and her family.
8. Theodor Kotschy (1813-1866), Die Eichen Europas und des Orients, Vienna, Olmütz, Hölzel, 1858-1862.
9. Melbury, Dorset: one of the Fox Strangways family homes; WHFT was born there.