Abbotsbury <1>
2 Novr 1837
My dear Henry
I hope you will come here with Horatia <2> & take your view of our garden which is usually a winter one I think – you may then chuse a few plants to take back with you, as the time for decimating the seedbeds approaches.
Not having been here since May I find a great deal new, & some deficiencies after the winter & spring. I find come up some seeds I did not expect, Pistacia vera, Cytisus ramosissimus, Mattia umbellata, Ebenus Cretica, Ilex opaca, Pinus excelsa, Negundium Americanum, Cassia nictitans, Schinus molle, Celastrus scandens, &c Among the plants I find three Salvia leucanthas going to flower beautifully for the first time I believe in England, this comes of putting them out. Also Bidens procera & longifolia, Ruta albiflora (very pretty) Crocus longiflorus, sativus & Thomasii, Pelargonium triste, Colchicum montanum var cupani – Convolvulus Italicus & Cantabrica, Delphinium intermedium, Campanula muralis, Silphium laciniatum & I find one or two German plants I had despaired of growing well, viz. Rosa aciphylla, Spiræa decumbens Primula rhætica, & elatior vera, & 3 sorts of dwarf almond from Vienna. Some ferns too are doing well out of doors but they must take their chance for the winter – Onoclea sensibilis, Davallia Canariensis, Adiantum pedatum, Woodwardsia radiscans &c –
We have had tremendous gales, that of yesterday I think surpassed anything I ever saw – I hope they are over. Several trees are broken in Stavordale Wood.
I sent Mlles <3> letter on to Paris – I wished for a little more account of you all. How is H. Shelbne <4> he did not strike us in town as looking so ill as he was said to be. I suppose all Bowood <5> will be going to town before long – I stay here till the beginning middle of the month –
Yr Aff
W F S
Dorchester November three 1837 W F Strangways
Henry F. Talbot Esq
Lacock Abbey
Chippenham
Notes:
1. Abbotsbury, Dorset: home of William Thomas Horner Fox Strangways.
2. Henrietta Horatia Maria Gaisford, née Feilding (1810–1851), WHFT’s half-sister.
3. Amélina Petit De Billier, ‘Mamie’, ‘Amandier’ (1798–1876), governess and later close friend of the Talbot family [See Amélina's journal].
4. Henry Fitzmaurice, Lord Shelburne, 4th Marquess of Lansdowne (1816–1866), MP; WHFT's cousin.
5. Bowood House, nr Calne, Wiltshire, 5 mi NE of Lacock: seat of the Marquess of Lansdowne, that is, all the Lansdowne family.