Dec 30 –
Dear Henry
Your letter without a word of your intended trip out this way surprised me I hope you have not abandoned your intention. Do not send me out any plants by sea, they never come & always die. If you come yourself as I suppose you will not stop much on the road, you might bring a pot or two of novelties such as are only to be transported in that way – as Orchideć, bulbs &c I think Cymbidium hyacinthoides would be acceptable here, they have it not, but the pulchellum which is very pretty also, pray enquire at any garden if they have the C. pulchellum in England, for I could send it –
I have just got the bill of lading of Johns <1> 3 packages ed una pietra antica <2> I wonder what it is. Saverio <3> says they made a most delightful tour to Scopelo, Skyatho, Milo several times, Tino, Syra, Scio, Negropont & various parts of the Morea, & overland from Smyrna to Constantinople by Bursa & Mt Olympus, where he found the mead covered with persian or lilac primroses Nicomedia & Nicća – then by Troy along the coast of Pergamos to Smyrna & if a tiresome Mr Hall who had promised to go with him had not dawdled for 6 weeks he would have gone to Scala Nova Ephesus & the parts behind Smyrna, Sardis &c.
I always wanted to go to Sardis for I think one might excavate some of the treasures of Crśsus or at least of Midas. I wonder Kit <4> goes back to Seville & Cadiz I think he should send Galatea <5> to Malaga or Alicant & meet her there. – Iris pumila was hardly worth bringing alive from Nice – it is only a fellow variety with Germanica florentina & pallida – Lirium trigynum nor any (hardly) of the Cape plants grow out here because they will grow a flower just as winter sets in which is too decided here to leave them in beauty tho some of them might drag on a [mi]serable<6> existence. At this moment there seem to be more flowers at Abbotsbury <7> than at Florence
Bring a piece of any new [illegible] alatus, speciosus, & all the old ones.
How is your Chariessa Did you ever find Atropa Mandragora?
Sherborne, Jany Eighteen 1826 Ilchester
H. Talbot EsqreH Talbot Esqre
31 Sackville St
London
Worthing <8>
Notes:
1. John George Charles Fox Strangways (1803–1859), MP.
2. And an antique stone (sculpture).
3. Saverio Levota, a manservant/courier employed during the 1820s by various members of the Strangways and Talbot families while travelling on the Continent.
4. Christopher Rice Mansel Talbot (1803–1890), immensely wealthy landowner, mathematician & politician; WHFT’s Welsh cousin.
5. His yacht. [See Doc. No: 01286].
6. Text torn away under seal.
7. Abbotsbury, Dorset: home of William Thomas Horner Fox Strangways.
8. Readdressed in another hand.