Malta -
25^th Oct^r 1846

My dear M^r Talbot

I enclose a list of the negatives I have sent by steamer to Southampton - to your address -^<1> But I am quite in despair - utterly discouraged by my failures in trying to copy some of them, & much inclined to give up all attempts in an art which stops short of utility just at the very point when one thinks to have attained it. - I shall be very glad to send the negative to your people to save the trouble of copying myself in any quantity - but still I should like to be able to do it myself upon occasion - otherwise the art is little available, or creditable to the distant traveller - Do therefore oblige me by trying to enlighten my stupidity. I use, as M^r Jones^<2> instructed me, the following mixture

50 grs nit. silv. to 1 oz. distilled water - & to 12 oz. - 6 drchs of ammonia - 3 nit acid - 8 dist. water -^<3> laid on with cotton - not brush substituting only 80 for 50 gr. nit silv. but even that proportion will give no impression beyond a light purple - unless twice laid on - Neither do I find it make any difference keeping the paper previously soaked, 20 seconds, or 3 hours, in the salt solution of 1 part saturated solution of common salt to 10 parts of water - all this is unaccountable.

Thus, it is true, sometimes I get a good copy from the frame but after 3 washings in warm water - one in cold hyp. sulph. soda,^<4> & again 3 in warm water, it all invariably becomes dark, - discoloured - specky - or faint and confused & indistinct - losing all sharpness, or character, even before it becomes dry. -

Do then, I pray you, correct my proportions, & amend my proceedings therein, as you best can: - as I really shall not have courage to open my camera again - which I have now put away till I can hear from you for I despair quite. -

Pray tell me also my faults, or imperfections in these negatives - which you can designate by their Numbers, as I keep a copy of the List -: what are too dark,^<5> too little cooked in Camera - too far or too little brought out - or badly fixed.

Some few you will see I attempted to fix finally with hot hyp. sulp. soda: - having no bromine potass ^<6> at hand I contrived a plan of carrying them in water after bringing out - & fixing at night at home - you will no doubt be aware how difficult it will be to understand the black nature of the lava country upon Etna - as thus depicted - those who never saw it will hardly comprehend the fidelity of these views in that respect. -

Any further notes, or notices of the places, which you may desire I shall be very happy to give you. - But you will wish to get rid of any information I fear - long as this. - It would be very annoying to go on my Syrian & Egyptian tour without being able to finish my work occasionally - to see, & shew, the effect - but I am preparing for it - & if I cannot go with the Bp. of Jerusalem,^<7> I follow him - not however till I have the pleasure of hearing from you. -

How I wish you would extend your continental tour ^<8> to this part of the world! - Sicily could greatly please you, if you have never been there - society & climate & scenery delightful - Malta is filling for the Winter - Greece will be my destination next year, as there my boy^<9> will be employed - in Negiopor[?] -

Upon the black lava country of Etna I found 6' & 7' not too much for exposure in Camera: - which here under the same intensity of light 3' are sufficient - perhaps too much - pray tell me this -

N^o 66 & 67 were taken under peculiar circumstances the first both from the bottom of the great Crater. The first when I had just planted the instrument there upon the very edge of the fiery gulph which descends thence, - at the moment an explosion took place - I ran off & came back when it had passed, 3½' had elapsed - & N^o 66 - stood depicted - N^o 67 I caught between the explosions, & shews the very mouth of that tremendous abyss - thus ^<10>

Any elucidation of the views I shall be happy to give you - & beg you to believe me always, my dear Sir

very truly & gratefully yours
Geo W Bridges

perhaps if too much engaged to write these instructions, your people ^<11> would let me pay them for the trouble of doing so - or tell me of some book containing them -

List of Negatives - sent to H. Fox Talbot Esq^re

23^d Octr.

N^o

1 Ear of Dionysius - Syracuse
2 Street of Tombs - Syracuse
3 Old Church of S. Giovanni & entrance to Catacombs - Syracuse
4 Latomia Syracuse
5 Theatre - in distance Syracuse
6 Temple of Jupiter Olympius - Syracuse
7 Capuchin garden of Silvia in Latomia - Syracuse
8 Front of old Church of S^t Giovanni. - Syracuse
9 Amphitheatre Syracuse
10 D^o D^o
11 Cathedral - Temple of Minerva - Syracuse
12 Epipolæ Syracuse
13 D^o gate by which Marcellas entered - D^o
14 Nexapylum - Syracuse - (Livy xxv.24) ^<12>
15 Front of Cathedral - Syracuse
16 A Lettiga - (travelling in Sicily)
17 Labdalum: Epipolæ - Syracuse - (Livy. T. vi. 97 - vii. 3) -
18 Epipolæ - Trojilums - Syracuse. -
19 Latomia & Ear of Dionysius - Syracuse
20 D^o (another point of view)
21 Reputed Tomb of Archemedes
22 Garden of Capuchin Convent - Syracuse
23 Labdabum - Epipolæ - Syracuse
24 Abate's Hotel - Catania
25 Scopuli Cyclopum. - Rocks of Acis & Galitea ^<13> - Aci Trirra
26 Saracenic Castle - Aci Trirra
27 Catania - Etna in distance - (very faint)
28 Taormina Etna 25 miles off.
29 The Corso - Catania -
30 D^o D^o
31 The Biscari palace - Catania -
32 D^o D^o
33 Front of Benedictine Convent ^<14> Catania -
34 Side of D^o D^o
35 Garden of D^o
36 D^o D^o
37 Convent in Corso D^o
38 Nunnery - for orphans D^o
39 Cathedral - Catania
40 Court of Benedictine Convent - Catania
41 Taormina - piscinæ
42 Saracenic house in Taormina
43 Mola - above Taormina
44 Scena - or interior front of Amphitheatre - Taormina Soma in distance - very faint
45 Portion of Amphitheatre - Taormina
46 D^o
47 D^o
48 D^o
49 D^o
N^o
50 D^o
51 D^o Exterior front
52 D^o D^o
53 Portion of interior - D^o
54 Back of Benedictine Convent of S^t Nicolo del Arena - Etna
55 Front of D^o
56 D^o
57 Gateway of D^o
58 Etna from the vineyard of D^o
59 Casa Inglese - Etna
60 Casa Inglese - Etna
61 D^o with Cone of Etna - & lava of 1842 still smoking
62 View from door of Casa Inglese - looking West
63 The Torre del Filosopho - & cone of Etna
64 Mass of running lava
65 view from door of Casa Inglese, looking East.
66 Crater (thick smoke rising)
67 D^o (at moment between explosions)
68 Portion of Amphitheatre - Syracuse
69 D^o D^o
70 Theatre - & Nymphæum - Syracuse
71 Porto picolo Syracuse
72 Porto grande Syracuse
73 Portion of Aphitheatre - Syracuse

	Casa Inglese
	Amphithetre at Taormina
	& 3 others sent <15> on 13th Oct

I particularly beg for about 12 copies of each of the numbers

7
22
24
29
33
34
35
36
40
13
73

or with figures in them - having promised such to those who so assisted me - also a few of each - as you can send them to me. -

---

Notes:

1. See Doc. No: 05750 and Doc. No: 05754.

2. Rev Calvert Richard Jones (1802-1877), Welsh painter & photographer.

3. 50 grains of Silver nitrogen, 6 drachms of ammonia and 3 drachms of nitric acid. A liquid drachm was 1/8 ounce.

4. Hypo sulphite or hypo.

5. Bridges and his companions at Malta Rev Calvert Richard Jones (1802-1877), Welsh painter & photographer and Christopher Rice Mansel Talbot (1803-1890), immensely wealthy landowner, mathematician & politician; WHFT's Welsh cousin had previously had problems with getting evenly exposed negatives in the strong Mediterranean light. See Larry J. Schaaf, Sun Pictures Catalogue Five: The Reverend Calvert R. Jones (New York: Hans P. Kraus, Jr., 1990), p. 31. [See also Doc. No: 05185].

6. Potassium bromide was used for fixing photographs.

7. Samuel Gobat (1799-1879), Anglican Bishop in Jerusalem from 1846 until his death in 1879; he became Vice-Principal of the Malta Protestant College in February 1846, but on 9 April 1846 he was appointed to fill the vacant Bishopric at Jerusalem by the King of Prussia.

8. See Doc. No: 05652.

9. Capt. William Wilson Somerset Bridges (1831-1889), RN.

10. A sketch of the crater is inserted at this point in the text, showing a tripod mounted camera placed next to the crevasse. The negative survives in the Talbot Collection at the NSMeM, Bradford, 1937-2180, Schaaf 3328. Bridges inscribed it: "67. The gulph of fire at bottom of Crater - Etna. taken between the explosions." It appears to show stones that have been recently thrown up.

11. Nicolaas Henneman (1813-1898), Dutch, active in England; WHFT's valet, then assistant; photographer and Benjamin Cowderoy (1812-1904), land agent in Reading; business manager for WHFT; later a politician in Australia.

12. Livy (59BC-17AD), History of Rome from its Foundation, book XXV.

13. Yacht of Christopher Rice Mansel Talbot (1803-1890), immensely wealthy landowner, mathematician & politician; WHFT's Welsh cousin.

14. See Doc. No: 05714.

15. Probably Doc. No: 05738.