Burlington S^{t <1>}
Aug 6

My dear Henry

I hear from Mary ^<2> that you are at Lacock & not likely to leave it. I thought the contrary – as I heard you were looking for something somewhere. If you stay at Lacock next week would it be convenient to let me pay you a visit any time after Thursday next it is a long time since I have been at Lacock & as to catching you any where it is among the improbabilities –

I met R. Brown ^<3> at dinner yesterday & had a good botanical talk with him & Cap^t King. ^<4> Australis. ^<5> He strongly recommends cultivating the Carpodontes which nobody has got.

I am off to Loddiges ^<6>

Y^r aff
W F S

[envelope:]
Henry F. Talbot Esq
Lacock Abbey
Chippenham

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Notes:

1. 31 Burlington Street, London home of William Thomas Horner Fox Strangways.

2. Mary Thereza Talbot (1795–1861), WHFT’s cousin.

3. Robert Brown (1773–1858), botanist, author of the Prodromus floræ Novæ Hollandiæ …, (1810).

4. Philip Parker King (1793–1856), commander [1821] and later rear-admiral. He retired to Australia.

5. of southern (Australian) matters

6. The firm of nurserymen established in Hackney by Conrad Loddiges, run at this time by his son George Loddiges (1786–1846).