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Document number: 5643
Date: 03 May 1846
Recipient: TALBOT William Henry Fox
Author: TALBOT Christopher Rice Mansel
Collection: British Library, London, Manuscripts - Fox Talbot Collection
Collection number historic: LA46-056
Last updated: 10th July 2006

Naples

May 3d 1846

My dear Henry

By a letter Jones <1> received from you before his departure for Rome &c I learn that you had some thoughts of making a tour up the Rhine and toward Switzerland. As my route homewards as soon as my little girl is well enough to travel will be by Milan, Zurich, Basle &c it would be a pity if we could not meet somewhere, therefore pray give me a line directed to Poste Restante Genoa to say where you are to be found. I did a few Talbotypes for you, but did not find out till after a great many failures a very simple fact which ought to be known by every experimenter, namely that the solutions will not keep, and ought to be made fresh at least once a fortnight. Gallic acid especially decomposes. If you have not left England, I imagine you will have received the parcel of negatives I did for you. As for Jones, he has thought of nothing else since he left England, and I fear you will have had a surfeit of Malta - Still I should like to see a few of mine reversed whenever you can do it, for they will serve to remind me of scenes connected with a portion of my existence which however painful, I would not forget

Believe meYours most truly

CRM Talbot

Jane <2> will be crossing the Alps going northward about the middle of June.

Notes:

1.Rev. Calvert Richard Jones(1802-1877), Welsh painter & photographer and close friend of Kit Talbot.

2.Jane Harriot Nicholl, née Talbot(1796-1874)