TALBOT1799

Naples
17 – feb –

My dear Henry

I desiderate a long botanical letter from you – have you received any seeds from me? I send you a Galanthus from Campobasso, which Tenore ¹ thinks cannot be nivalis but minor Clusii, or something between that & plicatus Marsh. Bieberst. ² – I think it a common snowdrop – but as we have no authentic ones here to compare it with I shall write to Dorsetshire for one to be sent. Pray tell me what you recommend with regard to my plan of having my copies of frescoes lithographed ³ & where. I hear from Florence, a Perugino which I knew, has just been sold for a sum of 1500 Scudi – about £375 – for Munich or Dresden – Those Germans are raising the price of antiques terribly – It has one good effect – it draws many curious & good things out of of [sic] obscurity – Wallis ⁴ has finished his great picture of Diomede’s horses – it is very well spoken of –

Tell me how Lacock & garden are going on – Kit ⁵ is here or rather is gone to shoot near Pæstum I charged him to bring me a packet of Nar. serot. bulbs – Il n’en fera rien ⁶ – He talks of his house as if it was a thing to be bought ready made or ordered from a shop in Bond St like a plum cake or a sugar Palace – I am sorry his architect has persuaded him to take patterns & examples from modern gothic houses, which are no authority, such as Tregothnan &c. – instead of going to the fountainheads such as Warwick, Longleat, Cotele, &c Have you read Bucklands ⁷ paper on the fossil palms of Portland – he has just sent it me –

Y^r aff^te
W F S.

Henry F. Talbot Esq^r
31 Sackville St
London
Lacock abbey ⁸
Chippenham
Wilts