TALBOT1576

Dear Sir/

I received quite safe the prisms & Lenses from Utzschneider as forwarded by you, with your letter, ¹ and I lose no time in thanking you for the trouble you have been at respecting them – and shall, the first time I go to Town pay into your Banker’s the amount 25:3:7 which you have been so obliging as to disburse on my acct. ² The Prisms are really beautiful and I am rejoiced to see that the art of glass making is not lost.

Have you heard of Fresnel’s death. ³ I fear it is an event too probable in itself not to be true, though my information is not fully to be depended on, & I have seen no mention of it in any public print – but all public interest is now so absorbed in our greater loss ⁴ that a mere man of science however eminent drops out of the world unnoticed.

I remain my dear Sir Yours very Truly
J F W Herschel

PS. I have given up the idea of applying to Munich at present for an object glass having purchased of M^r South ⁵ his 7 feet Equatorial the object glass of which is 5 inches in aperture & a very good one.

I was very unlucky to be in Town when you passed Slough. I hope to be more fortunate another time.

H. F. Talbot Esq^r
Lacock Abbey
near Chippenham
Somerset