TALBOT2397

20^h October 1876

Dear Sir,

You will have seen by the Daily Telegraph of today that Mrs G. Smith ¹ will receive a pension of £150 a year from H. M. Government The Museum ² will not be obliged to give up Cuneiform publications but they can not be recommended at once About 200 Tablets from Babylonia all cited by Mr Smith are on the point of arriving and will have to be examined before it can be decided which of them should form a part of the new volume These volumes have hithertoo been edited by Sir H. Rawlinson ³ and I shall have to consult him on the subject.

You are of course aware that I have another Assyrian assistant Mr Boscawen ⁴ who has made good progress and might hereafter be able to prepare the texts for publication. He is now editing Mr Smiths Sennacherib ⁵ and publishing Esarhaddon on his own account

The Trustees at my suggestion have resolved to go <illegible deletion> on with the excavations at Nineveh and Mr Rassam ⁶ will proceed shortly proceed shortly <sic> to the East. The £1000 balance remaining of what was voted by Parliament this year for Mr Smiths excavations are available

Bagster ⁷ tells me the VII. volume of the Records of the Past ⁸ will be issued in a day or two

Yours v^y trl^y

S Birch

H. Fox Talbot Esqe