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Document number: 04218
Date: 18 Mar 1841
Recipient: HERSCHEL John Frederick William
Author: TALBOT William Henry Fox
Collection: Royal Society, London
Collection number: HS 17:305
Last updated: 26th April 2010

Lacock Abbey
March 18. 1841

Dear Sir

Your letter <1> reached me this morning, after mine to you was departed. <2> I have no doubt that substances exist more sensitive to light than that which I now use; indeed it is reasonable to suppose that increased results might be obtained by merely varying the proportions of the chemical mixture, but these experiments take too much time, & must be left for future investigation.

What a pleasant residence Collingwood <3> appears to be; lakes and old oak trees are very much to my taste, and I am now looking out for a country house for the summer, because I find or fancy that the air of this neighborhood is not salubrious, at least for a long time together.

The House agents in London offer so many to one’s notice in every part of England that it is quite l’embarras du choix <4> & ends in deciding upon nothing –

I expect in less than a month to be able to publish the process of the Calotype tho’ I don’t yet know whether it can be sent to the R. Society. <5> I enclose a few more specimens. I must now really transport my apparatus to some locality where picturesque objects are to be met with, such as a Cathedral, or a seaport Town, for my own neighborhood is not particularly suited to the Artist, and offers no great variety of subjects –

I remain Yours most truly
H. F. Talbot

The portrait was done in the shade in 3 minutes. The footman opening the carriage door <6> is also a good likeness, done in 3 minutes sunshine. The Elm tree <7> in 1 minute, camera 15 inches focal length, diamr of object glass 1 inch.

Notes:

1. See Doc. No: 04213.

2. See Doc. No: 04214.

3. The Herschel family home in Kent.

4. Too much to choose from.

5. WHFT communicated his paper The Process of Calotype Photogenic Drawing, to the Royal Society 10 June 1841. It was printed privately in London under the same title, by J.L. Cox and Sons, in 1841.

6. ‘The Footman’, Schaaf 2507, made 14 October 1840. See Larry J. Schaaf, The Photographic Art of William Henry Fox Talbot (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2000), p. 98.

7. The ‘Elm tree’, inscribed “done in 1 minute. H. F. Talbot Feb. 1841” is in the Herschel Collection of the HRHRC (974:002:003).