TALBOT355

London
12 July–

My dear Henry

I believe I promised you a botanical letter I quite forget what I was going to put in it but now Louisa Howard ¹ has brought me up from the New forest an undoubted specimen of a native Gladiolus which turns out to be Glad. communis v. minor – as far as I can see without comparison it is very like a small Bologna plant Bertoloni ² called triphyllus but which D^r Herbert ³ pronounced only a variety.

The Mundys ⁴ go out of town today to Merthyr Mawr ⁵ – the Framptons ⁶ are at Paris. I know no news about anything – Our stay here I fancy will be short – I want to see a little more of the Exhibition. ⁷ It is not so pretty, bright – light – or brilliant as the former ⁸ – tho more valuable on the whole. Besides it is not new, & not so popular among the public as it might be. There seem to have been some mismanagement – & what a Summer to treat foreigners to!

We went yesterday to see Charles Murray ( Edw. M’s ⁹ son) at Whitton near Hounslow – of which he married the heiress ¹⁰. It belonged to the Duke of Argyll 150 years ago – & he is said to have planted some of the very numerous fine Cedars & other trees there – the finest deciduous Cypresses in a group I ever saw. American, Turkey & other oaks – worth seeing altogether.

We have just got a box from Abb^{y 11} – with Gladiolus cardinalis Lilium peregrinum – Magnolia glauca – Mesemb. inclaudens &c &c

Genista tinctoria makes a very pretty garden plant kept tidy. Lilium Canadense of Emily Murray’s introduction is a fine plant.¹² Camp. Vidalii, Vanneri, Mauritanica, & barbata –

I hope you are all well at the Tower ¹³. Kit ¹⁴ has taken a Tower at Wimbledon to show his family the Rifles I suppose.

Y^r Aff^te
W^m