TALBOT1328

Florence
Nov 30 –

My dear Henry

I have just heard from D^r Buckland ¹ that he is coming out here in Feb^y to pass the Spring in Italy & Sicily & next Summer in Auvergne – I expect him therefore here about the same time with you – & I wish you may contrive to meet him in London this winter as I conclude you will be there & he also during the month before setting out. I have written to tell him to call on you & I dare say you may see him with the Nicholls. ² I dare say you would like going to Sicily with him & he would be easily persuaded to go to Corfu with you – I hope you will make out that trip & compile a Flora Ionia it would be a pretty little job.

You would also learn Geology by the way which I believe is one of your intentions adjourned sine die. ³ I have told him to try to see Scrope ⁴ who would give him many useful hints quite in his way. I want him to come out by Nice &c – & return by the Bernardino or Splugen – Upon all that you could give him much information.

I told you that in June last I put some roots of Orchideæ into water for 3 weeks – changing the water twice in that time & then put them in pots & let them alone – to my surprise the other day I found 3 coming up, but have quite forgot what they were – I suspect, 1 Serapias rubra, & 2 Ophrys, I hope Speculum – I hope to have an opportunity of sending home one pot at least, & have decided it shall be one of the Speculums as I think that w^d be interesting to the Hort. Soc. or M^r Lambert. ⁵ I stuck in 2 little bits of Polygala flaveum which seem to be growing, & by way of making it more valuable, have just put in little ends of Sedums altissimum, virens, hispanicum, monregalense, & collinum. I stuffed into one pot an acorn of Quercus Ballota merely to keep, & forget which it was – I hope it may be in that. Besides I think there is a tree lupine seed from Abbotsbury ⁶ coming up in it which I shall extract if in the way – I wish I had put Cyclamen roots in the bottom & then it would have been the richest pot of 4 inches diameter that one could see. I now wish I had put in a root of all the Orchideæ at a venture – Coriophora, laxiflora – Lingua, cordigera &c.

I have got Fields ⁷ Papers on New Holland, there are some interesting things in it – I think we are slow in importing their plants. – I should like to see tree ferns, hardy in England. I believe they have Alsophila australis in some of the Cornish gardens. –

Certainly Europe is defective in the single item of flowering trees & shrubs – in herbaceous plants, & forest trees it has perhaps a fair share, according to its climates. Raddi ⁸ saw in Brazil Rhexias as large as the largest Oleanders here & covered with flowers equally handsome. The tide seems turning in his favor here, everybody knows his name & his ill usage & the Tuscan public seem inclined to do him justice – His book & Vivianis you will see in Burlington S^{t 9} or Melbury. ¹⁰

Your promised letter from Abbotsbury has not arrived – & from what I hear you have not bestowed time enough on it to see much it is unfortunate you were not there earlier – I have just had a letter from my old companion in the Crimea Wade Browne ¹¹ whom I saw for a moment here in the spring – he has been making an interesting tour thro some of the best parts of Germany to the Hartz Saxony Bohemia Silesia &c & as he has learnt to draw since we travelled together he is to bring me some sketches of scenery He discovered what I thought did not exist, some fine scenery & waterfalls in Poland – he writes from Cracow & has been making a tour in the Carpathians, I have seen the Hungarian side of that part of the Mountains, & can fancy scenery of great beauty.

He went to the Lake called Eye of the Sea, the 5 Lakes, the fall of Sclava Voda, & pass of Kosheliska. The M^ts are granite their forms beautiful – that I remember perfectly – any of these spots he says are worthy of Switzerland & as he has been over most part of Switz. on foot, he is a good judge. The Cascade of Sclava Voda is 400 ft high – & second only to Terni, but the Scenery very grand – The moment I can get free from this I shall start off or dart off in that direction – see Venice & the East & North of Italy which I do not know pass the Alps anywhere, seeing bits of Istria, Croatia, Carniola, Carinthia, &c &c to Vienna then by some new road in Hungary (perhaps by the mines) cross the old one at Rosenberg which I sh^d be glad to see again – over the Carpathians by the Pass of Iablunka to Cracow, the Salt mines & all the abovenamed beauties – From Cracow by the Vistula to Warsaw, then Silesia, Dresden & the Middle Landstrich of Germany to England – Do you not think such a tour delightful? –

If you see D^r Buckland tell him of W. Brownes discoveries, as he has been in that quarter & I believe saw none of them – tell him for my letter is sealed, that he found at Prascava <Scala?> in Poland an isolated rock of sandstone I suppose, more extraordinary than the Zuckerhut of Adersbach, bearing evident traces of the Agency of water –

W. Browne found on the summit of the Schneekoppe 5000 ft high a moss that smells of aromatic vinegar – I am to have a bit

Tell me what you are going to do at Lacock – I hear all sorts of reports – is it good garden ground

Y^rs truly
W T H F S

Dorchester, Dec^r twenty six 1825 Ilchester
H Talbot Esq^r
H. Talbot Esq

31. Sackville S^t
London