Lacock
April 24
My Dear Charles
We have sent your Cricket shoes by luggage train and the defence for the lag because Goodwin thinks the parcel will not cost any more for being a little larger. The weather has been very cold & ungenial. Hardly anything in flower out of doors except Forsythea's and they are finer than usual.
The accout in the Times of weaving by Electro Magnetism is very curious <1>
Matilda leaves Edinb. on Friday, they are going home to Speddoch.
Yours affly
Papa
Extract from Watson's New Botanist's Guide.
Gagea lutea, or yellow star of Bethlehem grows wild in Durham.
On the banks of Tees near Eglestone & Wycliffe & in fields near Bishop Ruckland; in Barbara Riggs, near Barnard Castle, and near Whorlton; near Pierce Bridge & at Butterby near Durham/
[Envelope addressed to Charles Talbot Esq, Revd A. Headlam, Whorlton, Darlington
Notes:
1. M. Bonelli improved on the Jacquard loom, replacing the punched cards with electrically conducting patterns that triggered solenoids to insert the desired coloured thread at any given point. See "Weaving by Electro-Magnetism," Times, 12 April 1860, no. 23592, p. 7.