Mount Edgcumbe <1>
Thursday March 13th 1845 –
finished Friday
My dear Henry
I saw Mr Condy <2> today – One of the persons he mentioned to you, the principal one, is Mr Haydon, a young Sculptor,<3> whom he is well acquainted with & can quite recommend. He says that he has a great deal of taste & artistic skill, which I think you would find of great use – He has made many attempts at Talbotypes,<4> & Mr Condy says has succeeded extremely well – that is to say they are faint but managed with great skill as to effect of light & shade.
He moreover thinks he would be glad to accept any offer, & that your idea of not occupying the whole of his time wd suit him particularly well. He will however write to him immediately to find out more about his plans, & let you know the moment he hears. Mr Haydon he tells me is quite enthusiastic about your Art.
I should think it wd answer extremely well to engage an Artist in the business, & if you wanted more help like Nicole’s, <5> purely mechanical, it cd easily be found. But with a person answering the description Mr Condy gives of his friend, you might be spared the trouble & ennui of examining every individual plate. Pray impart this letter to Mamma <6> & she will write me her opinion upon the subject.
The weather has been very cold since I came here; & today quite bitter – with a regular gale from the Eastward.
They are actually going to build a Battery in Picklecoombe with a Barrack to contain 60 men, who will occupy it without waiting for actual war – They will however make it in any shape we please & as picturesque as we like; which must be our consolation. Are you thinking of coming here with Nicole? Mr Condy is dying to make you talbotype some of the old drinking vessels at Cotehele, particularly a certain salver sculptured in relief by a celebrated Dutch modeller – which he says is too complicated to sketch – He wd have liked you to have made it to insert in his forthcoming work upon Cotehele <7> – The letter press is by Mr Arundale, <8> rector of Landulph, where the last of the Paleologi is buried – he was Chaplain at Smyrna, is a great Antiquarian, & wrote the Hist: of the Seven Churches <9> –
yr affte Sister
Caroline
Notes:
1. Mt Edgecumbe, near Plymouth: seat of the Earl of Mt Edgcumbe.
2. Nicholas Condy (1793–1857), artist.
3. Presumably Samuel James Bouverie Haydon (1815-1891), of Exeter, saved from the practice of law, he became a sculptor, medallist and painter and exhibited regularly at the Royal Academy and at the British Institution. No photographs by him are known.
4. Like much of his family and many of his colleagues, Caroline hoped to honour the name of the inventor of the process, but WHFT modestly preferred his term of calotype.
5. Nicolaas Henneman (1813–1898), Dutch, active in England; WHFT’s valet, then assistant; photographer.
6. Lady Elisabeth Theresa Feilding, née Fox Strangways, first m Talbot (1773–1846), WHFT’s mother.
7. Cothele, on the banks of the Tamar: the ancient seat of the Rt. Honble. the Earl of Mount Edgcumbe (London).
8. Francis Vyvyan Jago Arundell (1780–1846).
9. A visit to the seven churches of Asia (London: J Rodwell, 1842).