TALBOT2144

London
Tuesday

My dear Henry

I hear from H^t Mundy ¹ the Lacock party is given up - I am afraid you will be un peu tristes à la campagne ² - meanwhile we are all gloomy here in & out - France is certainly in convulsions which will either upset the throne or if the expansive force finds vent in another direction it will overflow Belgium & send the D. de Nemours ³ & he of Leuchtenberg ⁴ to the right & left. They say that it will not be either King or even Army but the populace that will rush into Belgium ⁵ & take possession of it & then the Rhenish provinces, & next Savoy & Nice ⁶ - & that they profess will satisfy them. Ministers I believe are going on well, au fond, ⁷ but they have all the gaucherie of novices, & do & say a great many things they might as well not, & the carping opposition make the most of it. How long do you stay in the country - I went with JaneJane Harriot Nicholl, née Talbot (1796-1874) ⁸ to Colvills & the horticult. & saw lots of Crocuses I hope your collection is doing well, & those CarolineCaroline Augusta Edgcumbe, née Feilding, Lady Mt Edgcumbe (1808-1881); WHFT's half-sister ⁹ & I planted under the steps. I planted my weeping cypress out at a venture so it must take its fate. There is at the Hort. garden an Araucaria imbricata which lives very well out with a sort of moveable covering for cold nights - I saw the Enkianthus in flower which is very pretty, I hope you are planting stone pines & ornamental trees, you have such space for an arboretum Are my bulbs coming up yet?

Parties have begun, but I know little of them - If the weather was finer I should be inclined to run down to you but I have had so much rheumatism or pain in my face I have been quite afraid of facing the wind. Capt. King ¹⁰ has brought an evergreen beech from Patagonia supposed to be hardy enough for this climate.

Can you persuade M^r Wilmot Horton ¹¹ to take a few score Wiltshire labourers to Ceylon - I am glad he is going as I think he may do some good there.

Y^r aff^te
W F S.

Do you know M^r Whewell ¹² of Cambridge? He has reviewed Lyell's book ¹³ admirably.

Henry F. Talbot Esq
Lacock
Chippenham