Letter from Arthur Kilpin Bulley, Ness, Neston, Cheshire, to Isaac Bayley Balfour, RBGE, dated 25 June 1905.
Bulley writes to report that many of Forrest’s seeds and those of Pere Monbeig have germinated already, including ‘a very pretty little Convolvulus in various colours, which surely must be a Chinese Garden Escape, but wh. is to my thinking much prettier than any annual Convolvulus I know of here …’ Though unwilling to interfere in the matter of Forrest and Miss Traill, he has written to Mrs Traill expressing his high opinion of Forrest, continuing that 'A man sh' win his wife by himself' but he would find work for Miss Traill in his nursery if she ‘is being unendurably persecuted ..’ Bulley offers to send Balfour plants for identification and mentions that he is about to visit Cork-Waterford to look for ideal conditions for raising plants.
Plants referenced: Convolvulus; Cypripedium
Letter from the Co-operative Bees Ltd. Nurseries (J.H.), Ness, Neston, Cheshire, to Isaac Bayley Balfour, Edinboro' Botanic Garden, dated 06 July 1905.
Letter accompanying plants sent for identification by 'our collector, G. Forrest', including convolvulus.
Plants referenced: Convolvulus
Letter has been scorched with some loss (though not text)
Copy letter from Isaac Bayley Balfour, Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, to Bees & Co. Ltd., Ness, Neston, Cheshire, dated 19 July 1905.
Balfour provides Bees with identifications of 5 plants, expressing his view that Forrest must have been collecting in some Chinese Garden... 'the anomalous source of the four plants has been rather perplexing'.
Plants referenced: Geum; Ipomaea; Moltkia; Oenothera; Verbascum
Letter is slightly charred.
Copy letter from Isaac Bayley Balfour, Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, to A.K. Bulley, Ness, Neston, Cheshire, dated 17 August 1905.
Balfour writes to express his grief at the death of George Forrest and regret at the loss of ‘a born collector’. ... 'We have lost a really good man from whom I had looked for great horticultural prizes.'
Letter from George Litton, H.M. Consul at Tengyueh, via Bhama, to Isaac Bayley Balfour [Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh], dated 19 August 1905.
Litton writes to confirm that George Forrest is safe in the Chinese camp at Wei Hsi: 'Dear Sir, I write a line to confirm the news wh you will already have heard that Forrest by some miracle has escaped. We have definite news of him today, safe on the 13th in the Chines camp at Wei Hsi ‘…after horrible experiences’. Thank God for that. You will not think that I wrote the news of his death without good reason. It was confirmed from numerous official and unofficial sources and there were supposed to have been eye witnesses! I am more pleased than I can say. I expect he will have a wondrous tale to tell.'
Letter has been damaged by fire with some loss, though not of text.
Typed copy letter from Isaac Bayley Balfour, [Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh], to Sir Eldon Gorst, K.C.B., The Foreign Office, Downing Street, London S.W. dated 19 August 1905.
Balfour writes to acknowledge with thanks and joy the receipt of Gorst’s telegram. (GB 235 FRG/1/1/1/1905/28) 'I am glad to think that a career which promised so much of value to science has not been prematurely closed, as seemed probable.'
Letter is on fragile paper and has been scorched with some loss.
Letter from George Forrest, Talifu, Yunnan, S.W. China, to Isaac Bayley Balfour M.D., 'Regius Keeper', Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh, Scotland, dated 29 August 1905.
Forrest writes: 'At last I have reached Tali [Dali] in safety. I have just passed through the worst experience of my life and I sincerely hope I will never be called upon to suffer the like again.’
Forrest gives a brief report of the attack on the Tsekou mission on 19 July, his escape with two of the mission fathers, the hunting down, capture and brutal murder of the two missionaries, Pere Dubernard and Pere Bourdonnec and his own subsequent experience of being hunted by lamas for seven or eight days on the ridges of the Mekong / Salween divide. Forrest laments the loss of everything, his specimens, photographs, equipment, money and papers: ‘Worst of all I have lost the greater part of the season and this grieves me more than anything. After all my recent success apparently I am to end in failure …At times I feel that it would almost have been better had I been killed …I will have to start all over again. As soon as I regain my strength I shall recommence work on the Tsan Shan range west of here and do my best to make up for lost time. I dare not go north this year but if Mr Bulley is agreeable shall do so next spring.’
Forrest describes in a postscript the varieties of meconopsis and primula which he saw during his journey south down the heart of the range. ‘I would almost go through the same again to procure even dried specimens of them.’
Plants referenced: Meconopsis; Primula
Letter is slightly scorched with minimal loss. This letter has examples of acidic ink eating through the paper.
Copy letter from Isaac Bayley Balfour, Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, to Arthur Kilpin Bulley, Ness, Neston, Cheshire, dated 05 September 1905.
Balfour writes to Bulley to discuss the difficulty of naming plants sent by Forrest, as not all plants from the Chinese flora have been previously identified, including those in collections made by Wilson, Henry, Soulie, Ducloux and others. Balfour sends photographs of mounted specimens and requests approval for a proposed style of label.
Plants referenced: Gentian; Primulaceae; Ranunculaceae.
Letter has some minor scorch damage.
Postcard from A.K. Bulley, Ness, Neston, Cheshire, to Isaac Bayley Balfour, Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, dated 06 September 1905.
Bulley writes a short to Balfour on a postcard approving the photographs and regretting that they are unlikely to get seeds of the Tsekou plants unless Forrest got them on his first trip there. Bulley requests that the label printed for Forrest's herbarium collections simply says ‘collected by George Forrest’, removing his own name from it.
Postcard from A.K. Bulley, Ness, Neston, Cheshire, to Isaac Bayley Balfour, The Regius Keeper, Botanic Garden, Edinburgh, dated 24 September 1905.
Bulley writes to advise Balfour that he does not expect to receive any seeds of the plants from Tsekou this year, blue rhododendrons included.