[blindstamped notepaper] <1>
The Athenæum
London
April 24
My Dear Constance
Your brother & Hart <2> are expected tonight. A new ring is being made for your hair chain because the old one is more than half worn through. It will be done tomorrow. The hazy weather you describe prevailed also during my drive to Birthwaite. But the sunrise next morning which I suppose you did not see, was magnificent, perfectly cloudless & the air quite transparent. The Coniston mountains appeared quite bright and nearer than they really are. I hope Mr Lynn <3> wont think me uncivil for not calling on him, until my return. I enclose a polite note from our postmaster explaining a mistake which I had not heard of. I have bought a pamphlet by Lord Galloway, an old schoolfellow of mine, on the present state of Harrow School, <4> which if worth reading I will send you. You know Mr Sotheron <5> is one of the Governors, & therefore partly responsible if the system followed is a bad one. Mr Neeld <6> is also a governor. The head master Dr Vaughan <7> was Dr Arnold’s <8> favorite pupil, at Rugby.
Yours affly
Henry
In my letter to Ela <9> I have noticed the steady onward march of photography, which is very remarkable. I showed Henneman <10> an invention of mine called “the Travellers Camera” <11> which delighted him. It is the same I use in the garden at Greta. <12>
Notes:
1. Athenaeum Club, Pall Mall, London: WHFT’s club; a gentleman’s club composed primarily of artists and scientists.
2. William Mundy (1801-1877), politician, WHFT's brother-in-law; and his wife, Harriot Georgiana Mundy, née Frampton (1806-1886), WHFT’s cousin & sister-in-law.
3. Presumably Rev John M Lynn, of Thornthwaite, Keswick. See Doc. No: 06951.
4. Randolph Stewart Galloway, 9th Earl of Galloway (1800-1873), Charles John Vaughn and Baron H E Platt, Observations on the abuse and reform of the monitorial system of Harrow School, with letters and remarks (London: T Hatchard, 1854).
5. Thomas Henry Sutton Sotheron Bucknall Estcourt (1801-1876), MP.
6. Joseph Neeld (1789-1856), MP & botanist.
7. Charles John Vaughan, Dean of Llandaff (1816-1897), headmaster.
8. Rev Thomas Kerchever Arnold (1800-1853), editor & author.
9. Ela Theresa Talbot (25 Apr 1835 - 25 Apr 1893), WHFT's 1st daughter.
10. Nicolaas Henneman (1813-1898), Dutch, active in England; WHFT's valet, then assistant; photographer; opened calotype printing studio in Reading in 1843 and transferred to London in 1848.
11. See his full published description of the device in Doc. No: 06705.
12. This is an unusual reference, for WHFT generally gave up photographing in 1846, concurrent with the death of his mother, Lady Elisabeth Theresa Feilding in March and with the collapse of the publishing effort of The Pencil of Nature shortly thereafter. Most of his subsequent photographic efforts were devoted to the perfection of translating photographs into printer's ink, with his 1852 Photographic Engraving and 1858 Photoglyphic Engraving processes being the most widely known.