TALBOT7711

Redlynch ¹
23 Oct

My dear Henry

I do not know where you are, but selon les probabilités, ² not where I direct to you. I have been going to write to you again & again from Abbotsbury ³ to tell you of the beauties this fine season has called forth – but not having done so on the spot, the impression has already faded a little by absence.

You have of course been occupied with the comet ⁴ we saw it beautifully but I wish it had been more above the horizon. It is the first real looking comet I ever saw. I want to know why its tail curves like brush if it encounters no resisting motion. Is the tail a reality, or only an effect produced by its light shed upon a material, but without it, invisible æther? I hope to see some interesting reports & observations of it published during the winter with photographs.

The fine summer made everything flower magnificently & has covered the Ilexes & Bays with such crops of fruit as I never saw before – the acorns are in bunches, & bay berries clothe the branches like holly berries. Some odd varieties of oak too are bearing which I never saw before. I hope you have Crocus speciosus – the beauty of autumnal crocuses, & the Saffron – sativus, which does so well with us, tho’ at Spofforth ⁵ it flowered once in 15 years. Tell me what curiosities you have had – love to Ela ⁶ & C^o

Y^r Aff
W^{m 7}

I dare say you go to Vall’s ⁸ wedding. I wish them joy & think it must please all the family – Is it true that Caroline ⁹ met with an accident at M^t Edgcumbe? ¹⁰

The country about here is beautiful this fine weather