TALBOT8774

Abbotsbury ¹Dorchester
19 Dec^r 1863

My dear Henry

Thanks for your 2^d vol of Assyriaca ² – which I shall study at leisure.

Jane ³ & Christiana ⁴ & Rice ⁵ are with us & Ch. Franklen ⁶– Iltid ⁷ [sic] being settled at Lyme brings many of the family we do not often see into Dorset – Your Photograms are very pretty but I miss the monument & the courtyard –

We had two clear days & a threat of frost but it is come to nothing & the Aloe is safe so far – A very pretty Iris – either lacustris or prismatica – is flowering it is rather sweet ⁸ – I think it one of Emily Murray’s. ⁹ I have sent you some game & hope it arrived safe. I used to get it at Frankfort from[?] – hence packed in myrtle & from Scotland in Stagshorn Moss –

We stay here till after the new Year – & I hope to see Crocus Imperati & Iris scorpioides in flower – hyacinths & all sorts of bulbs are coming up strong – the double Roman Narcissus – & a single from Malta – are the only ones in flower yet <–> your pretty little Genoese I fear is lost –

The patronymics in ides are very Greek – but the Slavonians have them in witch ¹⁰ – tho’ only used in the Greek Church now.

There is a low ridge which connects the Caucasus & Armenia dividing the basons of the Phasis & the Cyrus – & probably extending to the Persian Caucasus of Media – the name at least being prolongd to the Hindoo Kosh – I have not a good map but I think I have seen it laid down as Kôh Kôsaun ¹¹ – in Persian – evidently the strips of Caucasus<,> both, in modern nomenclature having a peak called El Borz ¹² –

Yours
W^m