TALBOT6992

[blindstamp]

June 14^th

My Dear Constance

I gave some account of my passage of the Sty Head in a letter to Matilda. ¹ From what you say, I am afraid she did not receive it – Goodwin ² arrived this morning having travelled all night.

I saw Caroline ³ yesterday at her hotel in Park place with Ernestine – She was just going to Windsor, She returns on Sat^y & has taken lodgings at 39 Clarges S^t. Val ⁴ is in Town. Charley ⁵ at M^t Edgcumbe ⁶ eagerly occupied in making photographs, I think Nicholl ⁷ having lent him a camera and taught him the art, in which he is not yet quite a proficient, Caroline showed me one of his performances or rather failures which amused us much. It was a view of M^t Edgcumbe house, but such as it would probably appear to an observer about midnight in winter, that is to say, all is darkness both above and below, and yet the turrets and pinnacles of the building are faintly discernible against the sky – I am going to cook this picture for Charlie a little by boiling it in a chemical liquid in hopes that the picture may even yet “come out” for I have seen a recovery in cases nearly as desperate.

Today I received an interesting present from Vienna, it is the 4^th edition of a treatise on Photography in the German languages by M^r Martin ⁸ custos ⁹ of the Imperial Polytechnic Institution – Its title pages is ornamented with a wood engraving, representing what do you suppose? Nothing else than a view of Lacock Abbey with these words written beneath –
Residence of H. F. Talbot Esq.

In the Times of Tuesday was a very interesting letter from an officer of the fleet giving an account of the Circassian coast. ¹⁰ You should read it – perhaps it was in y^e 2^nd edⁿ Mondays paper. Imagine a country where the hedges consist solely of roses whose perfume is wafted far out to sea –

I called on Harriet ¹¹ who told me the Digby’s ¹² were in Town, & that Edward Digby was much better but attempting too much. He had been to Church at S^t James but the sound of the Organ quite overpower’d him.

Adieu

Your aff^te
Henry