TALBOT8251

Abb ¹ -
17 Nov^r

My dear Henry

I hear you are alone - you did not answer my last letter ² - did you go to Carclew? ³ I was sorry to miss you & Whewel [sic]⁴ at Bowood, ⁵ I sh^d have heard whether the Spanish eclipse ⁶ answered his expectations as well as yours. I want to see an official account of it, & to know what the results are.

Can you not run down here for a day or two & see the state of the garden after the worst winter & summer ever known? & take the chance of meeting the Llewelyns ⁷ on the 1^st Dec^r.

I am pleased among the wreck of plants to see that last winter did not kill every thing. The summer I fancy has starved nearly as much as the winter froze. It is odd so wet a season has allowed the formation of such seeds as Illiciums, Drimys, Chimonanthus, Camellias, Jessamines, & other rarities An orange berried Cotoneaster is handsome. Bulbs seem to have suffered or to be retarded very much. Five specimens of Agave have survived - & some dwarf palms - & cacti - Some of my choice ferns are died off - which is disheartening. Dianella in berry is very pretty.

The weather is changeable but very mild lately.

Y^r Aff^te
W^m

Have you seen Kotschy's work on Oaks ⁸ in Chromolithography the colours are too monstrous & he splits up species like most Germans, but the book is very interesting. I am making a collection of oaks - a Quercetum partly here partly at Melbury, ⁹ & raising acorns of the varieties.