TALBOT7199

Abbotsbury ¹
Dec 13

My dear Henry

We have a sharper & worse a more enduring frost than usual before Christmas – nevertheless nothing seems hurt. Explain how Pelargoniums &c – stand 20°F twenty ° Fahr. at night, no thaw all day, where they are, & don’t turn a leaf. Even after two or three days of it.

You sometimes want a gardener – There is a very good one at liberty, lately with our Melbury ² clergyman – has been used to a botanical collection & understands plants better than most of them – besides flowers, pleasureground &c. If you want such a person I can recommend him.

Can you send me seed or root of your fine Bomareas or Alstromeria I saw at Laycock – I got a Taxonia from a nursery called manicata & it turns out mollissima

There is no prettier creeper than Convolvulus bryoniæfolius.

Emily Murray ³ is returned laden with curiosities or as American say notions –

Yr aff
W F S

[envelope:]
Henry F. Talbot Esq
Laycock Abbey
Chippenham
4 Atholl Crescent
Edinburgh Scotland