TALBOT610

Penrice¹
Sept. 6^th 1814.

My dear Mamma,

I am now very well, & I hope you will not think of coming to London on my account. We leave Penrice next Friday for M^r Dillwynn's² at Swansea, & on Sunday, I believe, set out for Harrow.³ I believe that Uncle Harry ⁴ is going to take charge of us to Harrow. Kit⁵ likes the idea of going there pretty well, but I am so tired of Harrow that I think going there is like leaving the garden of Eden. D^r. B.⁶ has answered Aunt Mary's⁷ letter at last, & recommended a new master to be Christopher's tutor - You were wrong in supposing the Geranium you found⁸ to be the a Pelargonium, as there are not any of that genus natives of England. Of the two Geranium's [sic] you mention, I cannot tell which you mean to be peculiar to Westmoreland, but I can assure you that the G. sylvaticum is found in eight of our counties - viz: Cumberland, Durham, Lancashire, Norfolk, Northumberland, Shropshire, Westmoreland, & Yorkshire ⁹- The Geranium lucidum is common, but I have never seen it. I am much obliged to you for drying specimens of them. - I never observed the Sphagnum palustre; but it is very common in bogs, as it is the moss of which peat is almost wholly composed. I never heard before, of its being applied to the use you mention. - I am so very [illegible deletion] happy here, that I feel it more than usually disagreeable to return to Harrow. I do not think M^r Satterthwaite¹⁰ can have gone to the extent of botany, as it is a science which extends pretty far, & which by no means consists entirely of nomenclature - It affords excellent exercise to the powers of discrimination, & practises the memory very much. I am sure that I shall find Euclid much easier, after having accustomed myself as I do here, to the attentive examination of plants; in the descriptions of which, every term & expression must be well weighed in the mind, & thoroughly understood. Far from there being no mind in it, I think that if you or he ever read Smiths Introduction to Botany,¹¹ you must confess that there is something more in Botany than to know every plant when you see it. Aunt Mary says there is a difference between a philosophical, & a stupid botanist. the variety of wonderful contrivances which Nature employs for the protection of the flower, & due ripening of the seeds, &c. excite one's admiration at every step, & though not so useful, Botany is as engaging as any science I have yet read about. It is a very great resource, when one has nothing else to do - & unless we are in prison, or in London, we can always find some little beauty, to fill up the time, which would otherwise be spent in ennui.¹² - Give my love to Mr Feilding,¹³ & pray [illegible deletion] tell me where Caroline & Horatia¹⁴ are

Your Aff^te Son
W. H. F. Talbot

P.S. I am sorry that my next letter will be dated from Harrow -