TALBOT1339

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 Orchideæ, 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 & M^t Olympus, where he found the mead covered with persian or lilac primroses Nicomedia & Nicæa – then by Troy along the coast of Pergamos to Smyrna & if a tiresome M^r 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 Crœsus 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]serable⁶ 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, Jan^y Eighteen 1826 Ilchester
H. Talbot Esq^reH Talbot Esq^re

31 Sackville S^t
London
Worthing ⁸