20 Dec^r

My dear Henry

I was astonished to find where you were – I should have been less so had your letter been dated from le Pic du Midi – It is lucky I did not enclose you some seeds as I was near doing. The East winds must be bitter in George Street ^<1> just now.

However as you are where you are I will tell you what you may do. You can go to the Botanic garden & make acquaintance with M^r M^cNab ^<2> the Director a very intelligent travelled botanist – who collected himself many of the fine North American ferns & other plants there – it is a pretty spot in summer – & you may do well to visit Cunningham’s garden Comely bank ^<3> or some such Arcadian name as Scots delight in.

Do you know D^r Christison MD. ^<4> Prof^r Forbes ^<5> of Glacier celebrity; Sir J. M^cNeill GCB. ^<6> all these I could give you letters to you [sic] if you like & mean to stay long in Edin^bh

Have you read of the design to photographize the Codex Vaticanus? I shall be glad of the Euphorbia Spinosa – & believe I can give you cuttings struck for the first time, of its congener ceratocarpa

I wish you could see Emilys ^<7> copious American herbarium. It fills a large chest & I hope to amuse Jane ^<8> with it when she comes Your Arum is I hope the scarce Green Dragon of America which they ought to have taken for their standard it would be terrific in War.

I have just planted some Crocuses from the Crimea. The finest things at Abb^{ry <9>} now are the Euonymus – all in a blaze –

Yr aff
W F S

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Notes:

1. One of the principal New Town streets of Edinburgh. Although WHFT spent much time in Edinburgh in the late 1850s, here was there in December 1857 but at Lacock in December 1858 and 1859. He would have seen Emily's North American plants after 1857.

2. James McNab (1810–1878), curator of the Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh, 1849–1878.

3. A district in Edinburgh, north of the New Town.

4. Sir Robert Christison (1797–1882), M.D., Scottish physician, chemist and botanist.

5. Prof James David Forbes (1809–1868), Scottish scientist.

6. Sir John McNeill (1795–1883), diplomat. Made privy councillor in 1857 following his report, with Sir A. M. Tulloch, into mismanagement of supplies for the Crimean War. Presumably this was also when he was created Grand Commander of the Order of the Bath. He was in Persia 1835–1836 and 1836–1842. [See Doc. No: 00154].

7. Amelia ‘Emily’ Matilda Murray (1795–1884), author and Maid of Honor to Queen Victoria. Although a strong advocate in the Royal Court for the education of delinquent and abandoned children, she defended the institution of slavery in the American South after her travels there between July 1854 and October 1855. The publication of her memoir on this forced her resignation as Woman of the Bedchamber. Murray, Letters from the United States, Cuba, and Canada (London: J. W. Parker & Son, 1856).

8. Jane Harriot Nicholl, née Talbot (1796–1874).

9. Abbotsbury, Dorset: home of William Thomas Horner Fox Strangways.