TALBOT999

Penrice ¹
July 26

My dear Henry

I am quite shocked at having been at home a whole fortnight & never writing to you in answer to your last letter, some how the time passes so rapidly I have not time to do half I intend every day & tho’ I do not forget my absent friends I must own I seem to do so; I must now endeavor to make some amends & not waste both time & paper in trying in vain to exculpate myself. – You will be glad to hear that Charlotte ² is a great deal better since we got home & the rest very well. – We are now all at home with the exception of Sir C ³ – Jane ⁴ came a day or two ago & is looking very well she enjoyed her tour very much indeed & says she did get your letter at Paris, she intends answering it soon. – She is very sorry indeed at missing you, it is very unlucky you should have been so much longer in getting to London than you originally told us. – We are just returned from a very nice walk on Oxwich Point, ⁵ the air is delightful & the sea so blue! Kit’s ⁶ yacht is a great ornament to the bay, I sailed in it one day for an hour or two & liked it very much I hope you found Aunt Charlotte ⁷ quite satisfied with Augusta’s ⁸ improvement in health & Charley ⁹ as well as when I heard last. – Have you heard of poor William Floyer’s ¹⁰ death (he was the son of the late Clergyman of Stinsford ¹¹) he came round from Plymouth in a boat intending to go to Weymouth, but was not able to get out of the race off Portland! it is a heavy blow to his poor Mother & Aunt Susan ¹² feels it very much too, his box was saved & in it there was a letter from Capt. I Pellew ¹³ giving him the highest character whilst he had been under his command. – Uncle John ¹⁴ is enjoying himself here very much, he is going to Dublin to see Giles ¹⁵ & Kit talks of accompaning him & after staying a few days returning here & leaving John to his own devices. –

I must tell you what rare things I found at Williamstrip, ¹⁶ the wi[ld licquor]ice,¹⁷ Verbascum blattaria & the Monotropa hypopithys of Sowerby! ¹⁸ I hope in time I shall begin to remember the rare plants as well as the common ones for at present I am obliged to trust to my neighbours. They were sinking a well at Williamstrip & there we found such curiosities petrified oysters quantities of corals & wood in the blue clay & other shells in the stone as the well was a hundred feet Deep we had a great variety of things as you may imagine; in short it was very amusing to those who did not want the water for that seemed a scarce article, tho in the garden close to the house there was water at nine foot! – All send their kindest love. –

I am your aff^ate coz
Mary

I hope you will keep to your intention of visiting us in May. –

W. H. F. Talbot Esq^re
31 Sackville Street ¹⁹
London.