Ansd with a box of bulbs& seeds. June 25/38 JFWH <1>
Lacock Abbey,
June 11th
My Dear Sir
Any Cape bulbs which you have really to spare, will be very acceptable, but I consider myself not worthy of Satyrium’s – I was unable to flower those you sent before; they produced large orbicular leaves but no flower stem. I don’t know whether Lindley <2> succeeded better, but he was very anxious to obtain the flowers, & I gave him some good roots, to try. Mr Bateman <3> who is publishing a splendid work on Orchidić, is I believe the most successful cultivator. When in Town last week I dropped a card at your residence in the Regents’ Park. I don’t know whether you found it. They said you were gone into the county for the day: what a pleasant position you have chosen with a grove of young flowering shrubs before your windows.
I shall return to Town the 14th for a week or so. Do you reside now as formerly at Slough? If so, the railway will prove an amazing convenience to you. I went by it the other day; we reached Maidenhead in 50′ (ex. stoppages) I don’t want to go faster than that.
Since you left us, a new science has sprung into great notice, I mean Animal Magnetism, <4> I don’t know what to make of it, but I think it ought to be thoroughly examined into. It is unworthy of the dignity of science, that such a question should be left in its present half & half condition.
Believe me to remain Dear Sir Yours very truly
H.F. Talbot
Notes:
1. Written in Herschel’s hand. [See Doc. No: 03680].
2. Prof John Lindley (1799–1865), botanist.
3. James Bateman (1811–1897), The Orchidaceae of Mexico and Guatemala (London: Ridgway, 1837–1843).
4. A method of healing based on the movement of the planets, proposed by Franz Anton Mesmer (1734–1815), in 1779.
5. Sir William Jackson Hooker (1785–1865), Prof & botanist.
6. William Henry Harvey (1811–1866), was Colonial Treasurer at Cape Town 1836–1842.