Melbury ^<1>
Thursday

My dear Henry

I find Begonia [rameataea? is here & Nematanthus. It is a cold evening but there has been no frost here. Geraniums & Dahlias as fine as usual. A magnificent Ceanothus azureus on the wall is covered with flower –by the way I missed your old C. Myrsiflorus this morning.

I enclose two pretty flowers from the stove –

I met Lord Hatherton ^<2> at the station who said Lord Lansdowne ^<3> was much better this morning. I met also Poulett Scrope. ^<4>

I though on looking at your largest Cassia plant this morning that the leaves are very like those of the Brasilian species. I dare say it is the same.

Perhaps this will not find you at Lacock – & the flowers will be passées. ^<5>

Do you know Coleus Blumei

I stopped at the nursery at Yeovil & bought a white Lobelia which was new to me

Y^r aff
W F S

Dont you think Crimea is an anagrammatic form of Cimmeria? ^<6> It is known to have been inhabited by some of the Caucasian tribes

[on a smudged slip of paper, in hand of WTHFS:]
Siphocampylos [illegible]cinea
Impatiens [illegible]

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Notes:

1. Melbury, Dorset: one of the Fox Strangways family homes; WHFT was born there.

2. Edward John Littleton, 1^st Baron Hatherton (1791–1863).

3. Henry Petty Fitzmaurice, 3^rd Marquess of Lansdowne (1780–1863), MP, WHFT’s uncle.

4. George Julius Duncombe Poulett Scrope (1797–1876), MP & scientist.

5. will be finished dying

6. Land of the Cimmerii, on the Sea of Azov and in the Crimea. [These actual Thracian people are distinct from the mythical Cimmerii, who were reputed to live between Baiae and Cumae in Italy, in perpetual darkness – see Doc. No: 01358].