Mt Edgcumbe <1>
Thursday
My Dear Henry
I wrote to you yesterday directed to Sackville Street, <2> where if [illegible] did not expect you, she will be sure to send it to L. Abbey, & so it will just miss you. Lord Auckland <3> never did receive the Talbotypes send [sic] to India, nor any letter from you, except about my business. Once when he was in the Himalaya Mountains by some confusion he lost many things & made a great piece of work about it at Calcutta. He saw the Pencil of Nature <4> the other day at Carclew, <5> he says he thought it a very pretty book & immediately wrote to his Bookseller to get him a copy, which he will find on his return to Eden Lodge, & says he is impatient for the 2d number. Lord Mt E. <6> was much struck with your having told him that the view of Chambord was bad because it was such a rainy day as if you could not have remained there till the weather was clear, particularly with such an interesting object before you. He thinks if you had more perseverance your success would be more complete, & that if he were you he would persevere to pertinacity. There is no doubt that if you were an Artist instead of an Amateur your Art would be soon at the summit of perfection I hope you are thinking of some arrangement by which Nicole <7> can spend a Month chez Claudet <8> on your return from Belgium. Claudet having the stimulus of his own interest will spread your Fame by his success. I will send back the Times <9> tomorrow
[envelope:]
Henry F. Talbot E
31. Sackville Street
London
Notes:
1. Mt Edgecumbe, near Plymouth: seat of the Earl of Mt Edgcumbe.
2. 31 Sackville Street, London residence of the Feildings, often used as a London base by WHFT.
3. George Eden, 1st Earl of Auckland (1784–1849), Governor General of India.
4. WHFT, The Pencil of Nature (London: Longman, Brown, Green, & Longmans, June 1844–April 1846 [issued in six fascicles]).
5. Carclew, Cornwall, 3 mi N of Penryn: seat of Sir Charles Lemon.
6. Ernest Augustus Edgcumbe, Lord Valletort, 3rd Earl of Mt Edgcumbe (1797–1861), WHFT’s brother-in-law.
7. Nicolaas Henneman (1813–1898), Dutch, active in England; WHFT’s valet, then assistant; photographer.
8. At the house of Antoine Françoise Jean Claudet (1797–1867), London; French-born scientist, merchant & photographer, resident in London.
9. The Times (London). [See Doc. No: 05063].