TALBOT249

Lacock Abbey

Feb. 6

Dear Sir

I do not wish to add a Notice of M. Oppert’s translation. ¹ I have not seen it of course, and I will ask you to lend it to me at a future time but not at present, as I am going to Bath for 2 or 3 weeks – My address will be after today 4 Circus – Bath. ²

I find M^r Smith’s book Assyrian Discoveries ³ very interesting – I take this opportunity of enquiring whether the 4^th volume of Cuneiform inscrip^ns of Western Asia ⁴ is likely to be soon published? I have the first 35 plates of it – Its speedy publication is very desirable. Will M^r Smith’s publication of the Cuneiform text of the deluge tablet ⁵ appear in the next part of the Trans^ns of the Soc^y of Bibl. Arch^y, ⁶ or in a separate form, and when? Fresh materials of study are much wanted, not that the former ones are exhausted, but a new text often reveals the meaning of half a dozen old ones –

Believe me Yours vy faithfully

H. F. Talbot

D^r Birch
B Mus^m