TALBOT4013

Saturday

My Dear Henry

I hope you perceive by my letter yesterday that Lord Northampton ¹ cannot be accused of a want of respect for Science. I met M^r Babbage ² at Lord Foley’s ³ Ball, & he talked a great deal about you. He said yours was a reputation that would last. He is anxious to impress on you that it is absolutely necessary to have assistance for the mechanical part. He says he pays £400 a year to some person or persons to assist him & was obliged to teach one of them mathematics to enable him to do so. The Baron de Neumann ⁴ made me promise to ask you for a prin four Photographs for him to send to Metternich,^<5> who already possesses some that William ⁵ gave, but the Baron thinks these much superior. The 4 he wants are a piece of the broad lace, a statue, a leaf from the black letter book, and a view of Laycock Abbey. ⁶ The leaf of the old book particularly enchanted him, & he could not at first believe it was not itself actually laid under the glass. He wants to know by what title he is to ask for the memoir ⁷ you published on the subject, and who the publisher is. He wants to buy several to send to Vienna. It seems they take a very great interest in it there. D^r Copplestone ⁸ Bishop of Landaff has published a volume of letters from Lord Dudley to himself Everybody is reading them in one of them honorable mention is made of you I am told –⁹

[envelope:]
Henry Fox Talbot Es^re
Laycock Abbey
Chippenham
Wilts