TALBOT9163

Thursday Dec^r 6^th

My dear Father

I have now got into my new lodgings at 18 Sackville S^t which seem as if they would do very well and are a good deal larger rooms than the ones which I had in Ebury S^t. ¹ I went today into the Second court of the Common Pleas where there is a patent case going on. Grove ² is one of the counsel employed, & it was rather amusing to hear him cross-examining one witness. The witness never would answer the questions exactly, but once Grove asked him whether certain paste which came out of the Flour mill as [illegible deletion] refuse in a certain year was the same paste as in a certain former year, on which the witness replied “Of course not; how could it be the same paste” so Grove had to ask if it was similar paste or of the same character in order to get an answer I havent made out what the patent is. It is something to do with flour-mills and this witness wanted evidently to prove a prior <issue?>, I should think. They brought a model of the mill into court which was very big and very much in the way.

The weather has become very warm and rainy. The great Reform demonstration went off very quietly you see. I did not go to see it having an objection to a mob – I see the emperor Maximilian ³ seems to have [illegible deletion] abdicated practically. I went into the Museum of practical geology ⁴ in Jermyn S^t, where I saw the remains of the Eozoon ⁵ which is I believe one of the oldest creatures discovered, but I could make nothing of it. There are a good many stone hatchets and flint hatchets in this museum, & a slab of stalagmite from the bottom of a French cavern with lines of reindeer, and flint hatchets and a bone needle imbedded in it.

your affect son
Charles

[envelope:]
H Fox Talbot Esq
Lacock Abbey
Chippenham