Autograph Letter Signed ('Braybrooke') from Richard Griffin, Baron Braybrooke, politician and editor of Pepys's diary, to Rev. John Stevens Henslow, Cambridge Professor of Botany, discussing Lord Grenville's tree book and Dr Clarke's mulberry tree.

3 pp, 4to. Bifolium. Good, on lightly-aged paper, with minor traces of stub adhering to the blank reverse of second leaf. The year 1832 has been added in pencil in a contemporary hand. The letter is on paper watermarked 1831. Docketed at head 'Braybrooke Ld.' He begins by informing Henslow that Lord Grenville has lent him 'the Book in which his Notes upon the growth of Trees, during many years, had been made. He assures me that nothing worth your notice will be found among the MS remarks, but I am not of that opinion. Ld G is however very fond of the book as of an old acquaintance, & the entries if once lost can never be replaced, as no other Copy exists.' He feels 'very responsible' for the volume, but does not 'hesitate to entrust it to you knowing that you will lock it up & return it by a safe messenger'. The Braybrookes are 'stationary' at Audley End, and will be happy to see Henslow, if he wishes to return the volume in person. 'I have also a large specimen of lilac wood at your service, should you not have one already.' He is enclosing 'a paper which I copied from a loose MS document in my Evelyn's Sylva'. He ends the letter with a report of the fruit-bearing properties of Dr Clarke's mulberry tree: 'the indented leaves were also all on the lower part of the tree only, those above being all apparently of the common species'. In a postscript he reports that he has 'received no answer from Mr Blackie about the pruning system, perhaps he is afraid of entering the lists with you Cambridge Professors! ! !' The Prime Minister William Wyndham Grenville (1759-1834), Baron Grenville, planted at least 2500 trees at Dropmore House, and at the time of his death his pinetum contained the largest collection of conifer species in Britain.