Abbotsbury ^<1>Dorchester
19 Dec^r 1863

My dear Henry

Thanks for your 2^d vol of Assyriaca ^<2> – which I shall study at leisure.

Jane ^<3> & Christiana ^<4> & Rice ^<5> are with us & Ch. Franklen ^<6>– Iltid ^<7> [sic] being settled at Lyme brings many of the family we do not often see into Dorset – Your Photograms are very pretty but I miss the monument & the courtyard –

We had two clear days & a threat of frost but it is come to nothing & the Aloe is safe so far – A very pretty Iris – either lacustris or prismatica – is flowering it is rather sweet ^<8> – I think it one of Emily Murray’s. ^<9> I have sent you some game & hope it arrived safe. I used to get it at Frankfort from[?] – hence packed in myrtle & from Scotland in Stagshorn Moss –

We stay here till after the new Year – & I hope to see Crocus Imperati & Iris scorpioides in flower – hyacinths & all sorts of bulbs are coming up strong – the double Roman Narcissus – & a single from Malta – are the only ones in flower yet <–> your pretty little Genoese I fear is lost –

The patronymics in ides are very Greek – but the Slavonians have them in witch ^<10> – tho’ only used in the Greek Church now.

There is a low ridge which connects the Caucasus & Armenia dividing the basons of the Phasis & the Cyrus – & probably extending to the Persian Caucasus of Media – the name at least being prolongd to the Hindoo Kosh – I have not a good map but I think I have seen it laid down as Kôh Kôsaun ^<11> – in Persian – evidently the strips of Caucasus<,> both, in modern nomenclature having a peak called El Borz ^<12> –

Yours
W^m

---

Notes:

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

2. Probably one of more of the four papers by WHFT published in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, s. 2 v. 7, 1863.

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

4. Christiana Judy Nicholl, of Merthyr Mawr.

5. Christopher Rice Havard Nicholl (b. 1836), Jane Harriot Nicholl, née Talbot (1796–1874)’s 5^th son.

6. Charles Franklen, a son of Isabella Catherine Franklen, née Talbot (1804–1874).

7. Iltyd Thomas Mansel Nicholl (1828–1885), Capt. RN, Jane Harriot Nicholl, née Talbot (1796–1874)’s second son. He married Cecilia, daughter of Captain [later Admiral] Arthur William Jerningham. See Doc. No: 08520 and Doc. No: 08526.

8. Sweet-scented.

9. Amelia ‘Emily’ Matilda Murray (1795–1884), author.

10. Greek surnames indicating ‘son of’ end in – ides, Slavonian ones in – witch.

11. [Persian] Koh or kuh: mountain.

12. Elbrus is the highest peak in a chain of mountains in the Caucasus; the Elburz range [an extension of the Hindu Kush] is in northern Iran.