31 B. St. <1>
20 May
My dear Henry
I shall be very glad to come to you at Lacock Monday next & I have engaged Caroline <2> to stay a day longer there if possible – not to miss her on that classic ground.
The Trahernes <3> are at Everatt’s hotel very well – & stay three weeks. They give good accounts of all in Wales Jane <4> will not leave Rome till the end of the month.
Yesterday I went to Low <5> & Loddiges. <6> Low has not half the plants he pretends to have in his Catalogue – but he has some out of the way things. Loddiges no longer sells anything (except orchids) – all his stock is purchased by the Crystal palace I had the luck to meet at Low’s the Portuguese owner of that delightful garden at St [Michals?] in the Azores described in the Gardeners Chronicle. He is going to visit Abbotsbury <7> while he is in England to see what of their plants among others, have been acclimatised.
Yr aff
W F S
G. Gadola <8> is engaged for six weeks –[envelope:]
H. F. Talbot Esqre
Lacock Abbey
Chippenham
Notes:
1. 31 Burlington Street, London home of William Thomas Horner Fox Strangways.
2. Caroline Augusta Edgcumbe, née Feilding, Lady Mt Edgcumbe (1808–1881); WHFT’s half-sister.
3. Charlotte Louisa 'Charry' Traherne, née Talbot (1800–1880), WHFT’s cousin and her husband.
4. Jane Harriot Nicholl, née Talbot (1796–1874). Her husband had died in January 1853.
5. A nurseryman. See Doc. No: 06699.
6. Conrad Loddiges, nurseryman, of Hackney. See Doc. No: 01376.
7. Abbotsbury, Dorset: home of William Thomas Horner Fox Strangways.
8. See Doc. No: 06767.