WCP5602

[1]

Hurstpierpoint.

May 7. 1867.

My dear Hanbury

It has been so hot for some days that I find it very difficult to write or do anything. Mitten¹ told me he saw you at the soirèe, & now I have your kind letter of the 4th.

Thomas & Co.² made yet another mistake about the Transfer having sent it up for registration under the name of Spence. I have this morning heard from them to say that that also has been rectified & that now the document is ensièsament en règle [French: in good standing].

I suppose the Cavaliere Tomasso [sic] [Italian: Knight Thomas] Hanbury³ will need a Signorina [Italian: Miss] to look after the Palazzo⁴ — and the shirt-buttons.

I have pretty well made up my mind to remove to Wellburn (by Castle-Howard, Yorkshire) in June or July, if you can kindly spare the time to accompany me, for I dare not venture to travel alone, not even so far as Brighton. I think I am a little stronger than last spring, although something stiffer in the limbs — more rheumaticky. But my heart & lungs are so weak that a very little exertion of either in walking or talking fatigues me. I have often had to assist sick and dying people in S. America, & I understand a little about the pulse; but if I were to feel so weak & flickering a pulse as I have in my left arm in any other person I should say he was dying right off.

[2] [p. 2] I sent lately a longish paper to the Linnaean — had you been at home I sh[oul]^d have entrusted it to you — as you were not, I sent it to Dr. Hooker⁵, & it chanced that, he received it just as he was starting for Paris, so that I know not yet if it will be read this session. It is of a rather discursive character, & its title "Notes of some Insect and other Migrations observed in Equatorial America"⁶ does not fully express its contents. It arose out of questions that have been put to me by Wallace, Bates⁷, & by others who have read their books, something to this effect: "There are many instances of the range of a species of animal — especially of insects, but even also of birds & monkeys — being limited by a broad river, which is never crossed by such species, so that the Fauna of the opposite banks of the Amazon (for instance) is sometimes almost entirely different. Are there any similar instances of a broad river confining the range of a species of plant"?

My materials do not suffice to answer this question fully, but so far as they go they show plainly that the vegetation of the Amazon Valley in, in all its grand features, quite independent of the actual distribution of the running waters; and that the distribution of the species (or at least of the genera) of plants dates from a period when chains of lakes preceded the river-beds to which the waters are now confined.

[3] I have no ambition now but to sit down quietly and await my end, where I can have all necessary attention. You seemed to think I might not be so well nursed at Welburn as at Hurst, but I have no fear about that, as I have still a few kind friends there, including Mr. Teasdale⁸. Last November — I think about a fortnight before you were over here — I had a visit from an old sweetheart. I was just going to tell you about it, & something of her history, when Mitten came in, that Sunday evening, & I had no more opportunity of entering on it. She had come up to London on a visit to an aunt, & sent me word she was coming to see me, as accordingly she did one day in company with her aunt. Her name is Elizabeth Teale Sigston⁹, and she is the only child of the surgeon at Welburn, but Scottish by the mother's side. Our attachment dates from when she was but 15 and I nearly 12 years older. When her friends demurred against her marrying "a young man of some ability, but who was throwing himself away on so futile a pursuit as botany", I desisted from any attentions to her. I went to S. America when I was 31, and two years afterwards she wrote to me to renew the correspondence and to assure me that no one had ever taken my place in her heart. Yet a few years afterw[ar]^ds the connection was (as it appeared) finally broken off, through a misunderstanding that arose from no fault of either of us, but I suppose ^a not unusual ^thing where two people are separated 6, or 8,000 miles, and must wait for months before any explanation can reach them.

[4] After that, I heard she was about to me married to an old schoolfellow of mine who had come home rich from Australia. The match it seems was broken off, almost at the last moment, in consequence of Mr. Sigston¹⁰ and his daughter having discovered that the young man had contracted (along with his wealth) dissipated and licentious habits. But I fully expected she was married until I heard from her again 6 months ago. She is of course now an "old maid", & very different from the slim girl I used to think so lovely 20 years ago, but still a handsome woman. I have no hope — poor & invalided as I am — of ever being worth taking as a husband, but I may still hope to have my last hours soothed by the attentions of one who was once my dearest friend.

You must kindly excuse my telling you of this affaire du coeur [French: affair of the heart], which I do only to give you an idea of the sort of friends, & of the care, I may expect to meet at Welburn.

I enclose two "Cartes¹¹" of Miss S. and two fragments of letters, which please return. The latter will not be altogether intelligible to you in every part, but they will serve to give you an idea of the writer, and of the residence she has looked out for me.

I believe the Mrs. Vause she speaks of lives in a house of Mr. Sigston's (or his brother-in-law's). The "bank" spoken of is a steep slope of pastureland, with clumps of beeches on the knolls, & a drive along the top, from which there is one of the finest views in England. Looking northward, on [5] stands Castle-Howard — to my mind the finest palatial residence in England. Noble woods extend for miles on each hand, & in the background rise the north-eastern moors to 1000-1800 feet. I should like you to see it, for it would give you a different aspect of Yorkshire from any you have yet seen. Then there is plenty of good botanising ground near. Miss Sigston would drive you over to Hildenly Wood, where Actaea Spicata grows abundantly on oolitic limestone — Castle-Howard is renowned for its paintings, many of which adorned the Palais Royal [French: Royal Palace] before the French Revolution, having formed part of the property of the Duke of Orleans (Philip Egalité¹²). Mr Teasdale would show you all the lions of the Castle & the grounds — he is a bit of a connoisseur himself, & has a few fine paintings.

You must let me know whether you think you will be able to accompany me. Of course, my going at all is doubtful, for if I am not at my best I sh[oul]^d break down by the way. I ought to remain a week in London, somewhere in the neighbourhood of Great Portland St. where my dentist lives.

— I have written to ask Lindberg¹³ if his box may be forwarded by sea to some port on the Baltic.

— I am not very easy about the investment. The "Gov[ernmen]^t guarantee of 5 per cent" you told me of is not of the English but the Indian Gov[ernmen]^t, so that a successful — or even a wide-spread — insurrection would incapacitate that Govt[ernmen]^t from fulfilling its pledge; & an uprising of the natives is certain — a mere question of time in fact; &, if backed by any power with whom we get to war, is certain to make short work of "our Indian Empire".

[6] Here is a long rambling letter — written with stiff burning fingers and an aching head — so that it is not always so clear as I c[oul]^d wish. The May summer has set in with great severity. Yesterday the therm[ometer]. was at 79° in my sitting-room. This morning (8th, 6 1/2 h[our].) it is at 72° but will probably get up to 80°.

I cannot make up my mind about the Hooper. The Ed[itio]n of 1831 goes too far back into antiquity, & the price of the later ed[itio]n goes too deep into my purse.

I remain | Yours ever faithfully | Rich. Spruce [signature]

D[aniel]. Hanbury Esq.

Many thanks for the Daily News¹⁴.