TALBOT301

Abbotsbury ¹
May 4

My dear Henry

As I suppose you have nothing but politics to occupy you morning noon & night I send you by way of change an exterior & interior petal of Tulipa Oculus Solis vera – typus speciei which has flowered here as well as it could have done at Florence – its stem is not above half as high as T. Raddi – its leaves much greener & not glaucous, & its petals red outside as well as in, while fresh, Raddi being colore vitellino ².

I hear Horatia ³ goes to Almack’s ⁴ – but I do not hear of your going – do you go to Loddiges or Colvills-⁵ when I come to town let us make a visit to some of the Nurseries –

The speeches which have amused me most are those of L^d Londonderry ⁶ L^d Ellenborough ⁷ – & M^r Dawson–⁸ I think the opposition will be at least as heterogeneous as the Ministry –

When are you going to Lacock do you still intend to have a garden like a chessboard? Doryanthes excelsa for a King & Yucca gloriosa for Queen I believe there are terraces and Cloisters which would afford a local for a pretty conservatory & Italian garden–⁹ Tell me some thing of your cold journey which I hear spoken of as something if not equal, comparable to Capt [Feildings]¹⁰. Here, Verbena triphylla, Metrosideros lanceolata Calla Æthiopica, Teucrium fruticans Cneorum 3coccum¹¹, Amaryllis longifolia & several Ixias Agaves &c have lived out & are shooting again – Oleander I hope to see a stock plant like Myrtles –

Y^r Aff
W F S

I do not yet know when I shall come to town I have written to the Foreign Office & expect an answer tomorrow which may determine me – Who are to be the Under Lessees Ought not Narcissus bulb[o]codium to be rather an Amaryllis or Pancratium? Did I tell you of my new Muscari & Ornithogalums?
Have you got your picture yet?

W. H. F. Talbot Esq
31 Sackville Street