TALBOT1506

BM

9^th January 1877

My dear Sir

Your paper on the Cypriote inscriptions ¹ has just arrived and many thanks for it. Mr Cooper’s ² at present very seriously ill and staying at the Consumption Hospital Ventnor <Block F?>. He has written home to say that although rather stronger his respiration has not improved U^r A Cotes of 7 Whitehall Yard London SW is acting for him ad interim. The Society now numbers 475 members but does not increase at the same rate as it did a year or two back.

The Smith Fund ³ is now over £600 about £647 having been received and more subscriptions being promised but it must I think be closed in March and arrangements made about the application of it – which will no doubt be a subject of serious consideration. Some of the children will be got into schools as soon as presentations can be obtained

There is nothing very new in Assyrian at present Rassam ⁴ is at Constantinople but whether he has been successful or not up to the present moment I do not know. The Turks are not very pliant at the present moment and much occupied on matters of more importance to them. I gave him a letter to Safvet Pacha ⁵ who is said to be a highly educated Turk and helped Smith on a former occasion. The VII & VIII volumes of the Records of the Past ⁶ are now out

Yours very t^ry

S Birch

H. Fox Talbot Esq^r