TALBOT4897

Dear Sir,

I had almost begun to think that you had forgotten me, or, what was more probable, that you were unwell, or upon your travels. I was therefore delighted nearly as much with the sight of your handwriting, as with the beautiful Calotypes ¹ which accompanied it.

The Gate of University College, Wadham & S^t Peters Church, ² are particularly beautiful. The inky blackness in the last of these is remarkable. Both D^r Adamson ³ and I produced the same tint accidentally, & we think it, in many cases, preferable to the brown. We conceived it to be produced by letting the positive lie long in water that had ammonia in it, after the Calotype had been fixed by the Hyposulphite. Perhaps you can explain it better.

You promised me some of those you had executed in France. Does the brighter Sun improve or deteriorate the picture.

I wish I could send you some of the fine Calotypes of ancient Church yard Monuments, ⁴ as well as modern ones taken by M^r Adamson, ⁵ and also specimens of the fine groups of Picturesque personages which M^r Hill ⁶ and he have arranged and photographed. Those of the Fishermen & women of Newhaven ⁷ are singularly excellent. They have been so overwhelmed with work that they have not been able to send me a Collection which they have promised.

I enclose what I hope you will admire a picture taken from the top of S^t Regulus’s Tower ⁸ here, 130 feet high. The Steeple is that of S^t Salvator’s College in North Street. The building in the centre is our New College. Over it is S^t Andrews Bay, & over that the Mouth of the Eden. The negative was taken by M^r Furlong ⁹ & the positive by me. It is too dark, but I have no better copy.

I have been doing very little this Summer. We have had little Sun for Solar Spectrum Exp^ts and the little I have done has been on binocular vision, ¹⁰ and the polarisation of the Atmosphere. ¹¹

We are now fighting a great battle of civil & religious liberty in Scotland, ¹² and, as a part & parcel of it, that of University Reform. The enclosed resolutions will explain this latter point to you. We are building 800 Chambers and 500 Schools, and as I feel a deep interest in all these matters, I, of course, take an active part, and have thus been withdrawn, to a certain extent, from my usual and more peaceful occupations.

The next step in the Calotype is to make Paper sensitive to objects illuminated with Gas ¹³. I hope you are making the attempt & will succeed.

M^r. M.P. Edgeworth ¹⁴ shewed me, and indeed has left me with one of Sir John Herschels ¹⁵ Cyanotypes ¹⁶ made by Sir John. It is taken from an engraving; & is tolerably sharp but by no means pleasing.

Ever Most Faithf^y y^rs
D Brewster

S^t Leonards’ College
S^t Andrews
Nov^r 18^th 1843

H.F. Talbot Esq^r