My dear Henry
As you do not say where you are going I do not know where to direct to you – I have sent your letter to H. Frampton <1> who has a Bee ophrys coming up from seed sown on the surface I think she would be worthy of some seed of the Italian orchideæ; if you find any of the longibra[cteata?] sambucina &c – pray send it her in a letter. The Gardeners here have a scarlet Anemone hortensis double which I never saw in England I hear my cutting of Cerinthe Aspera has flowered with the true dark spot – pray send to someone in England seeds of the Nicæan one – What are the leaves of the pavonina? I think I have seen its varieties in the garden – Is the Palm forest of the date or the fan palm? Globularia must have a little the look of a scabiosa succisa I think –
I hear I am to expect a letter from you every day – which I hope will tell me of some trouvailles <2> in Istria – Harriet says a great many of the seeds you gave her are come up – particularly Alliums – I hope you will send her more.
I direct this to Vienna where I hope you will see Jacquin <3> & his Botanic Garden which was in great beauty when I saw it at this time of year – Ask for the Berberis fructu dulci, & the Hungarian & Illyrian trees & shrubs, because it is supposed there are some distinct species of Acer among them & it might be Tenore’s <4> Napoletanum. I have a letter today from John <5> who is just got to Naples & on the point of coasting down Calabria to Sicily meaning to return to Naples in a month. My letters to Tenore &c were in the unfortunate felucca. I hope you will go down the Danube as far as Presburg, <6> & up it to Klosterneuburg on the road to Presburg are some curious Saxogothic chapels near Deutsch Altenburg – pray go for a day or two to Baden & ramble up the St Helenensthal which is very pretty, I found a gentian there ages ago which I have not made out yet. Mödling, Brüll & the Schneeberg would be perhaps too far – But do not be persuaded by anybody to go to the gardens at Schönau, unless to see how far bad taste will go both in choice of situation & its embellishments – In Vienna itself there is only the Prater &c – the Belvedere gallery & the Lichtenstein to see. in the latter you will see a facsimile of the sleeping cupid at Melbury <7> but given to Franceschini <8> an imitator of Guido. <9> In the Prater look for Lotus conjugatus & Cerinthe minor which I found there in May. Above all, go to Dornbach it is one of the prettiest bits of park or forest scenery I ever saw, & on a Sunday when crowded with people, is delightfully gay & picturesque
I believe there are some pictures at Count Fries’s which I never saw – you will not miss Canovas <10> monument of the Archduchess – & pray look at St Clements bones encrusted with gold The Library & cabinets are matters of course – If you see Mr von Hammer <11> the orientalist, express my remembrance of him. At [Binhersdorf?] in the wood you may see my great northern favorite Melampyrum nemorosum I saw it there for the first time – I should not wonder if it was to turn up in the wood here during the summer as I have found some of its hyperborean companions as the 3 convallarias, & the absence of primroses bluebells &c betrays a flora borealis. <12> I am trying to get Dodonæus [Cruitbock?] I hope you will see Camp. <13> pyramidalis wild in Carniola which is one of my longings – Do you know C. gracilis of which I have a few plants come up?
Yr Aff
W T H F S
Autriche
A Monsieur
Monsieur W. H. F. Talbot
à la poste restante
à Vienne
Notes:
1. Harriot Georgiana Mundy, née Frampton (1806-1886), WHFT’s cousin & sister-in-law.
2. Finds.
3. Prof Joseph Franz Frieherr von Jacquin (1766–1839), Austrian botanist.
4. Michel Tenore (1780–1861), Italian botanist & traveller.
5. John George Charles Fox Strangways (1803–1859), MP.
6. Bratislava.
7. Melbury, Dorset: one of the Fox Strangways family homes; WHFT was born there.
8. Probably Marcantonio Franceschini (1648–1729), Bolognese painter.
9. Guido Reni (1575–1642), Bolognese painter.
10. Antonio Canova (1757–1822), Italian sculptor. Among his funerary monuments is that of the Archduchess Maria Christina of Austria.
11. Probably Joseph Freiherr von Hammer-Purgstall. [See Doc. No: 00264].
12. Northern flora.
13. Campanula.