TALBOT3685

Llanelay ¹

May June 4^th

My dear Henry

We shall be very glad to see you at the time you mention. I hope the weather will be propitious for mountain walks – I have been away so much this winter & Spring that the garden feels it very much. We had not so much to lose as most people & so do not complain, but we grieve over the polyanthus Narcissus’s & the Genoese Narcissus, that you imported & all the Cistuses of every kind. William ² wrote us word there was nothing but death & destruction at Abbotsbury ³ & expected us to supply him with the tender southern bulbs we had sent him before but alas! what do you call Gnaphalium Stœchas I thought it was a white one that grows wild in many parts of this County? Many of the plants you enumerate are unknown to me. the great Cytisus which has been the ornament of Penrice ⁴ garden ever since I raised it from your Varese seeds, has been Killed – it seeds but little yet there were some young plants that are gone too. some of the Shrubs at Margam ⁵ seem killed & the Great Bay looks damaged but I think will recover. If I tell you all this Horticultural news, I am afraid we shall have nothing left to converse upon when you come, so I shall say no more, but I must observe that as California is the most bitter climate, at least that part visited by Douglass^<6> we have a right to expect them to bear cold when wintering as well as to enjoy heat when they are summering. Our Common Artichokes are killed at Penrice & almost every where. I was not at Penrice & so your letter follow’d me here. Charlotte ⁶ is staying with me now, till M^r Traherne ⁷ returns from Town & 2 of Isabellas ⁸ Children. I [am]⁹ initiating them in gardening & find it is such a family taste that even the names of the plants are learned very readily – I wish I was near enough to have your castoffs from Lacock.

Your aff Aunt
M: L: Cole

If you can remember, give my love to Lily.

My post days are (to receive) Tuesdays Thursdays & Saturdays.

Henry Talbot Esq^r
31 Sackville Street
London