[Talbot crest]
Lacock
Tuesday
My Dear Constance
You will be glad to hear for your friend Mrs Wildman’s <1> sake, that Lieut. W. is promoted to the rank of Commander, and the Times has devoted a leader to his praise.<2>
Please to forward the enclosed letter to Jane,<3> as I daresay you will be able to learn where she now is – I think I last heard of her at Tenby.
As Mr Llewelyn<4> takes such an interest in photography if he thinks of taking up the subject of photoglyphic Engraving,<5> perhaps he would like to come to Lacock for 2 or 3 days before we start for Edinburgh for the purpose of practising the art – I should be most happy to show him my present mode of proceeding – but if you think time will not admit of it or he has other engagements then of course it must be for another opportunity – I only mean that I have no particular engagement that would prevent me as I hope my present run of correspondence and people asking for specimens will soon cease-<6> –
Your affte
Henry
Mr Vardon<7> called today, too much in a hurry to eat any luncheon except a dry crust – He is engaged on a great picture of the Comet. The weather was most splendid today.
I have written to Dr Moir by this nights post and offered £180 for 4½ months for Mr Sandfords house in Randolph Crescent<8> and if that is refused I have authorized him to offer £200.
Notes:
1. Antonia Wildman, née Oakes (See Doc. No: 05080).
2. During the Opium War of 1856, Lieut Leveson Wildman, Captain of the steam gunboat Stauch, attacked three pirate vessels, destroying two; 'Piracy in the China Seas', The Times (London), 3 November 1858, p. 9. He was a brother of Thomas Wildman ( See Doc. No: 03974).
3. Jane Harriot Nicholl, née Talbot(1796-1874), WHFT's cousin.
4. John Dillwyn Llewelyn (1810-1882), Welsh photographer, JP & High Sherif. Constance had been assisting in a Photoglyphic 'Engraving Seánce' at Pennlergare See Doc. No: 07704.
5. WHFT's newly patented process for producing ingtaglio printing plates, which permitted photographs to be preserved permanently in printer's ink.
6. WHFT attacked this problem by producing photoglyphic engraving prints to accompany George Lumley's articles on the subject, and included ‘Bridge over the Moldau, Prague’; ‘Palace of the Duc de Montpensier, Seville’; ‘The New Louvre, Paris’; ‘The Gate of the Cathedral of San Gregorio, Valladolid’; and ‘The Institute of France’. See ‘Description of Mr Fox Talbot’s New Process of Photoglyphic Engraving’, Photographic News, v. 1 no. 7, 22 October 1858, pp. 73–75; and v. 1 no. 10, 12 November 1858, pp. 114–115. He also had a limited number of special proofs made without lettering and on India paper for his private distribution to interested parties.
7. Alfred Thomas Vardon (1811-1892), artist & teacher, Grasmere, later Bath.
8. The Talbot family normally rented houses for their frequent extended stays in Edinburgh. This was possibly Dr John? Moir, an Edinburgh physician seen by the Talbot family; and Erskine Douglas Sandford, Edinburgh advocate & landlord.