Venice
June 12th 27
My dear Henry
I have just been applied to to get some seeds for the Vice Roy here and should have written to the Secy <1> of the Horticultural Society, but that I am not quite clear whether or no the rules of the Society permit the exportation of seeds. The following is the Vice Roy’s memorandum “Des semences du chanvre gigantesque de la Chine”, <2> & “Des Semences du Sagù de l’Afrique, nommé par les botaniciers holcus spicatus” <3> – They should be directed to W. T. Money Esqr <4> H B M Consul general, Oleggio pres de Novarre en Piedmont – through Heny Rolleston Esqr Foreign Office –
I do not suppose the above seeds will be ruinously expensive, but at any rate I shall have a set off against you in the collection of Egyptian antiquities which I have not forgotten I have to make for you – I am about leaving Venice for Trieste where I shall stay a short time and then go to Pola & perhaps to Gara or Fiume, & on to Corfu & the other Ionian islands. I have been here three weeks and like Venice very much, but I am all impatience to get to Greece, which stands at present in a most interesting position. Lord Cochrane <5> is said to have taken the celebrated corvette ‘City of Navarin’ which I fell in with off Cape Passaro, & which I thought for some time had a mind to attempt to take me – Genl Church <6> also is at Athens and has been defeated by Wretched Pacha <7> – This I heard through a british [sic] brig which touched at Ancona – I narrowly escaped meeting a pirate in the Adria[tic] <8> if I had, I should have captured her. Pray write to me & direct Malta, how I wish you would join me and make the tour of Syria & the holy land with me in October – You have only to come out to Malta & I would run over from wherever I might be to fetch you – Messrs Hunter and Ross at Malta know where I am –
Ever yours truly
C R M Talbot
W. H. F. Talbot Esqr
31 Sackville St
London
Inghilterra
Notes:
1. Joseph Sabine (1770–1837), botanist, Secretary, Royal Horticultural Society – lawyer.
2. Seeds of the giant hemp from China.
3. Seeds of the African Sago, named by botanists holcus spitacus.
4. Sir William Taylor Money (1769–1834), Consular General, Venice.
5. Thomas Cochrane, 10th Earl of Dundonald (1775–1860), British naval officer. In 1827 he was elected admiral-in-chief of the Greek navy.
6. Sir Richard Church (1784–1873), liberator of Greece. He arrived to Greece on 7 March 1827 and was elected generalissimo of the armies of Greece. He failed in his first attempt to relieve Acropolis of Athens.
7. Reshid Pasha (1800–1858), Turkish statesman and diplomat.
8. Text torn away under seal.