Millburn tower <1>Edinburgh
Aug. 7
My Dear Wm
We are going to London next Wednesday to see the great exhibition <2> and I hope you will not be gone before then, but I just write a line to enquire whether we are likely to find you in Town. The only botanical news I have heard for a considerable time was that contained in your last letter <3>.
There is a certain Dutch Baron who sells rare bulbs remarkably cheap – many really good things being priced only a penny. He was recommended to us by a lady who has a beautiful garden in this neighbourhood, so I have ordered a quantity of things to be sent in the Autumn. Would you like to see his Catalogue?
Yours afftly
Henry Talbot
Notes:
1. Millburn Tower, Gogar, just west of Edinburgh; the Talbot family made it their northern home from June 1861 to November 1863. It is particularly important because WHFT conducted many of his photoglyphic engraving experiments there. The house had a rich history. Built for Sir Robert Liston (1742-1836), an 1805 design by Benjamin Latrobe for a round building was contemplated but in 1806 a small house was built to the design of William Atkinson (1773-1839), best known for Sir Walter Scott’s Abbotsford. The distinctive Gothic exterior was raised in 1815 and an additional extension built in 1821. Liston had been ambassador to the United States and maintained a warm Anglo-American relationship in the years 1796-1800. His wife, the botanist Henrietta Liston, née Marchant (1751-1828) designed a lavish American garden, sadly largely gone by the time the Talbots rented the house .
2. The International Exhibition of 1862.
3. Not traced.