Aix les bains Thursd. Ev^g

13 June 1861

Dear M^lle Amélina

I received your letter in London w^ch is the only news of any of you I have rec^d since leaving Edinb. I continue my journey tomorrow morning in the direction of M^t Cenis. The weather is perfect, we had a most lovely evening today. I took a drive to visit the spot where poor Mad^me de Broc was drowned on the 10^th June 1813 just this time of year. There was very little water in the stream today, it is a picturesque spot with 4 or 5 little cascades and a mill. It does not look a very dangerous place but of course any place may be rendered so by a treacherous plank. I believe I had seen the spot before, but if so, I had totally forgot it, and expected something more secluded and romantic. We are in full hayharvest here the carts of hay smell very sweet. There are shady lanes leading thro’ little fields <illeg> to the cottages of the peasantry who seem very comfortable, the soil being very rich. The distant mountains seem the perfection of barrenness, what walls of calcaneous rock ornament their sides like huge bands stretched across them. The lake was as calm as a mirror this evening – Most of the opposite bank seemed uninhabitable, the mountains sinking sheer into the lake as at wastwater or Thirlmere I think in one place.

I walked out at sunset to botanise in a neglected field. I was hailed by a young priest about 25 years of age, who asked permission to join me. He had a sort of half acquaintance with the commoner plants, and he was delighted when I named to him several others that he did not know. He soon found what he thought was a Carrot, but I warned him against the pleasing delusion. I dont think, tho’ we botanised half an hour we found anything really rare except Gratiola officinalis or “Herb of Grace” so called I presume from its medicinal virtues, or those it once had.

Adieu

Yours aff^ly

H. F. Talbot