TALBOT3095

Lacock
Jan^ry 18

My dear Constance

I send you the Academy with the life of M^rs Somerville, ¹ it was very good of M^r Menteith ² to send it me, but I had already received a copy from the Publishers.

The book you forwarded by the carrier was a copy of Records of the Past, ³ presented by Mess^rs Bagster ⁴ the publishers very handsomely bound. It contains Assyrian translations, four of them by myself, others by M^r G. Smith Sir Henry Rawlinson &c⁵ It is very neatly got up and only costs 3/6, therefore it ought to meet with a sale sufficient to defray expenses

A second volume will appear in July, “Egyptian translations” – Today was very dark and rainy.

M^r Merewether ⁶ has given up Inwood, ⁷ therefore we shall have no more pheasants from him. He expresses thanks for having had permission to shoot there, and sends salutation to the ladies –

It will be 3 weeks before the snowdrops are in perfection. You need not send me the Charities Voting Reform papers.

I have not used the carriage since I return’d home. Ela ⁸ used it one day – The coachman says nobody in particular broke it, but it is so weakly constructed that it gives way –

Your aff^te
Henry