TALBOT9499

[engraved address:]
Clemenstone,
Bridgend.

Feb^ry 24^th 1869

My dear Henry

The year before last you said you should like some seeds of what we call the “Lacock Pea”, but I was from home when they ripened & they were scattered before I returned – last summer however I was lucky enough to be here at the right time so I now send you some Pods & all, & I hope they will come up properly – the old plants are doing well though the drought of last Summer destroyed many things to my sorrow, yet I do not know I have absolutely lost the whole of anything of which I had more than one plant The Garden is very gay just now with Spring flowers that ought not to be in blow for another month here I cannot half enjoy them for I am always expecting a sharp frost to come & kill them all – I wish you could find time to take a look at my garden, I think you would find more old favorites & old fashioned things than in most peoples, I do not give in to the Bedding out system except for the beds that are planted in Tulips in the Spring – I do dislike a lot of empty beds so much

Edward Nicholl tells me you are going abroad again shortly I wish you would bring me some roots of the yellow Frittillary [sic] from the Col de Tende where you saw it blowing in June 1823 – If I could take a tour I should certainly go there & find it as well as the other lovely flowers you mentioned in the extract of an old letter from which I learnt this –

Your affa^te cousin
Isabella C Franklen

[envelope:]
H. Fox Talbot Esq^r
Lacock Abbey
Chippenham