TALBOT4199

26 February

Dear Henry

I hear that somebody has according to your printed directions, photographed the coffin of Napoleon ¹ at the moment it was opened at S^t Helena, ² when he was discovered exactly as he was left 19 years before.

I have seen M^r Babbage ³ several times, he is always everywhere. He tells me he did receive your photographs which you doubted, & conveyed them to Tuscany, but not with his own hand, having been taken very ill at Turin for several weeks. He looks very ill now. He says it was a fever with a nervous affection brought on by talking Italian for hours together, as he is not familiar enough with the language to speak it without effort and the Savans there do not understand English. He was very much fêté & flatté ⁴ by the King of Sardinia ⁵ who made a great fuss with him. He liked it so much he means to go again next Summer. Kit ⁶ came to town for the great fight in the H. of Commons, but went away the moment it was over & without my seeing him He told John ⁷ that a beautiful photograph had been made of Margam ⁸ by I don’t know who – very lately. I wish you would let me order for you a stove like Lord Ilchester’s ⁹ I find they only cost £5 – and would certainly make your library very comfortable. M^r Bingham Baring ¹⁰ has asked me very particularly about your motive Power, ¹¹ having he says himself a turn for Mechanics, of course I could give him no information

aff^ly y^rs

E F