Ab <1>.
Monday <2>
Dear Henry
Do tell me what the enclosed Geranium is – Its dilate lilac petals are the prettiest of all the hardy Cranesbills I know. Erodium hymenodes, Romanum, & Richardi are quite hardy I mean to cultivate them & Gussoni & eject macrorrhizon which is a perfect nuisance Gruinum I have lost – but I have an umbrosum at your service.
We go to town as soon as we can find a house – are there any in Sackville St <3> fit for Mam & John <4> & me? It is a pity leaving the garden where I am making discoveries every day – The finding Campanula fragilis & Primula Sinensis perfectly hardy in the worst places last winter will work a great change in my gardening – there shall be a blaze of them next year. We have Papaver Caucasicum very pretty – & bracteatum – Glycine Sinensis was magnificent a week ago – A weed has come up in 3 different borders which I take to be Silene Cretica – I will send you a bit it is very pretty & I hope will take to sowing it self as so many others do. Quantities too of a thing like Prismatocarpus verticillatus or perfoliatus are up too in the beds – Anchusa Italica very pretty – Allium pendulinum Muscari comosum & Oxalis purpurea, tetraphylla, cernua, & a brown leaved one all in abundance. I have found Armeria plantaginea – which I confounded with alpina – I have Orchis undulata in beauty The next Orchideæ I send home I will try out.
We want two sittingrooms three bedrooms besides servants if Sackville St affords
such I found Orchis latifolia yesterday, a new plant to me. I have Cytisus capitatus in
blow a very handsome shrub – Asphodelus albus which I can warmly recommend.
I wish Charlotte <5> had let me know before she went I wanted to tell her to go by Ehrenbreitstein Montebaurr <sic> & Selters – to drink fresh Seltzer water – What is their plan do they go farther than Milan or to Florence or how where or when I do not write to Jane <6> because I should be sure of getting no answer. I want to send Mary <7> some of the sky blue grape hyacinths Would you like some
Yr Affte
W F S
H. Talbot Esqr
31 Sackville Street
Notes:
1. Abbotsbury, Dorset: home of William Thomas Horner Fox Strangways.
2. It is probably early June 1830, judging from the horticultural information; see Doc. No: 02000 of 8 May 1830 which refers to Charlotte Talbot’s marriage and travelling plans.
3. 31 Sackville Street, London residence of the Feildings, often used as a London base by WHFT.
4. Juliana Maria Strangways, née Digby (d. 1842), and John George Charles Fox Strangways (1803–1859), MP.
5. Charlotte Louisa 'Charry' Traherne, née Talbot (1800–1880), WHFT’s cousin.
6. Jane Harriot Nicholl, née Talbot (1796–1874).
7. Mary Thereza Talbot (1795–1861), WHFT’s cousin.