TALBOT2133

Abbotsbury ¹

Thursday

My dear Henry

I wish you could have staid longer in Dorsetsh – to have spent a day or two here The late frosts have done scarcely any harm to the garden & the terrace has been delightful quite like Nice – There are in flower Crocus pusillus in quantity both florentine & Neapolitan – The Pisan has not appeared – the musk hyacinth, a few grape d^o quantities of stock & wallflower & Arabis & Iberis sempervirens a favorite plant of mine Euphorbia Characias – Coronillas – snowdrops & Tussilago fragrans – Arbutus hybrida – one Narcissus unicolor, very sweet – Pyrus japonica beautiful. Rhododendron atrovirens on the point of flowering & Primula sinensis out of doors. One Colchicum variegatum – evidently out of season – how are your Montana Euph. dendroides looks dim but is not slain. I am curious to know how your Cupressus Lusitanica stands the winter before I trust mine out. Cyclamen coum is in blow out of doors.

Pray rallegrate ² Orazina ³ on the eloquent Polish Manifesto it reads somewhat better than that of Nicholas. I know that it is so far from being got up for the occasion that the different topics of complaint are what I have heard of for years both in the country & before & since I was there from a great variety of people. A Pole I met at Naples told me the accounts in the Annual Register of various periods in the former troubles of the Kingdom in 1770 – 1789 – 1794 – were very correctly given in general – which it is well to know as they may be generally referred to. The Petersburg paper evidently leaves a possibility of accommodation provided the honour of the Czar is saved – & that the world are humbugged so as to believe he is not in the wrong –

O Connell ⁴ is going a great pace – He is determined nobody shall do any thing for Ireland but himself – I doubt his conciliating the monied interest by his run on the Banks – I think he has thrown himself overboard – Pray give us an account of the Royal fete whenever it takes place – we are country mice & want news from Court. Is Lacock or Sackville St ⁵ uppermost now? What a cry they make for ballot! ⁶ before anybody knows how it would act – The only proof of its necessity is in having tried reform without it & finding it fail. This supposes at least one previous trial – then if wanted it will pass quietly – if not it will be at once rejected. Besides Reform is not the simple adoption of a principle as in the Catholic question ⁷– it requires a laborious examination of detail, some experiment, some time, & probably amendment before its completion.

I find Othonna cheirifolia, Convolv. Cneorum – Linum arboreum Silene fruticosa, Centauria ragusina, some Cape Gladioli &^c stand out very well – Allium chamæmoly is in flower I think I have a variety with smooth leaves. Also Saxifraga sarmentosa, Camp. fragilis, Iris Sisyrinchium, & Origan – Dictamnus Romulea ramiflora was not blown when the last accounts came from Melbury ⁸ –

Y^r Aff^e

W F S

Henry F. Talbot Esq^r
Brighton
Laycock Abbey ⁹
Chippenham