Melbury ^<1>
28 Dec^r

My dear Henry

I recommend you & your party to come to the Evershot Station by the 4.55. Train – a carriage shall meet you there at 5. You will find here M^r & M^rs Hobhouse, ^<2> Gaisfords ^<3> sister – they are neighbours of ours at Redlynch ^<4> –

I had also asked Walter Strangways ^<5> to come, but his Father ^<6> has since been taken ill & I fear will not recover which of course will prevent him.

I hear from Kew that they have got from N. Zealand some fine grasses, equal to the so-called Pampas Grass.

A happy Xmas to all

Yr aff^te uncle
W^m

The Mundys ^<7> & Nicholls ^<8> are gone but you will find Mary ^<9> here.

I have a shoot or you might call it a plume of Pinus tenuifolia from Abb^{y <10>} which raises water like a siphon by capillary attraction & drops it into a saucer below

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Notes:

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

2. Henry Hobhouse of Hadspen, whose wife was Frances, sister of Thomas Gaisford. [See Doc. No: 08006].

3. Capt Thomas Gaisford (1816–1898), JP, WHFT’s brother-in-law.

4. Redlynch, Somerset, seat of the Earls of Ilchester (Barons of Redlynch).

5. Walter Aston Fox Strangways.

6. Rev Henry Fox Strangways, rector of Rewe, Devon. He died 25th February 1860.

7. Harriot Georgiana Mundy, née Frampton (1806-1886), WHFT’s cousin & sister-in-law; and her husband, William Mundy (1801-1877), politician.

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

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

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