TALBOT1534

[fragment]

Abbotsbury ¹
Feb 2–/ 27 ²

My dear Henry

I received your letter from Paris soon after I arrived in England & did not answer it because I had written to you the day before a letter which I sent to Sackville St ³ & which I hope you have received – I have not yet done wondering at you & do not envy you your journey at this season – I guess you were snowed up near Eisenach in some of the narrow vales of the Thuringer Wald – Is not Fulda a truly old German bishopriky capital?

I am here watching Giles ⁴ who is better & I hope will mend with the season – but he has had a long illness & it cannot be soon over – The Talbots ⁵ are just got to Penrice ⁶ in their usual state of health – Poor H. Frampton ⁷ has the jaundice which makes her snowdrops look yellow & violets green – Pray be particular & tell me what flowers you found between Gotha & Weissenfels – We have had a tolerable season – only two bouts of frost & snow – pretty sharp however but not sufficient to kill or slay – Melianthus minor, Ixia crocata, Oxalis purpurea, Cassia corymbosa, Iberis Gibraltarica, Metrosideros lanceolata, Leptospermum pubescens, Agave Americana, Mesembryanthemums of sorts & the other wonders of my garden – I mean to cultivate assiduously all the N. Holland ⁸ shrubs they seem to stand our climate better than many of the S. of Europe – Oleanders take to the soil so that I hope to make them a stock plant like the Myrtles – the old one from Constantinople has borne a pod or follicle this year & I have many varieties from Italy – the ground is full of Aconites which remind me of Florence – their usual companion Ornithogalum is not yet out. The Crocus John ⁹ sent me is in flower it seems a small variety of the Crocus Imperati of Tenore ¹⁰ which we found at Castel amare – but I am not sure –

I do not expect to leave England before your return

I have got more seeds than I know what to do with besides my own Italian – I have Mexican, Himalaya [sic], Austrian &c Polish, Siberian – I wish you had a regular garden at Lacock to raise plants in such lots at once are thrown away here – it is impossible to attend to them all – My cuttings of Sedums & Euphorbia Pithyusa from Florence are growing – but dendroides I lament is no more I should like to see you here in May – I am planting Sedum hispanicum on the walls –

[letter incomplete]