Lacock Abbey, Chippenham
May 23d
My Dear Sir,
Will you have the kindness to forward the enclosed letter to Sir J. Herschel,<1> as I don’t exactly know where to direct to him in Town; and if you can tell me what day is fixed for the dinner <2> intended to be given to him, I will be much obliged to you, for it is my intention to be present if I possibly can.
Tell me your opinion of Hullmandel’s<3> execution of the enclosed coloured lithography, & whether you think there is any other process in the arts that would give a better effect. I wish to avoid having the drawings coloured by hand, on account of the expense. The present plate is intended to illustrate the account I have given in Phil. Transns of analytic crystals.<4>
Believe me Dear Sir Very truly Yours
H. F. Talbot
C. Babbage Esqre
1 Dorset St
Manchester Square <5>
Notes:
1. See the letter of the same date addressed to Sir John Frederick William Herschel (1792–1871), astronomer & scientist, Doc. No: 03679.
2. A great public dinner was given on Herschel’s return from the Cape, 15 June 1838. For an account, see The Athenaeum (London), no. 555, 16 June 1838, pp. 423–427.
3. Charles Joseph Hullmandel (1789–1850), lithographer and engraver.
4. The original publication was WHFT's Bakerlian Lecture, 'Further Observations on the Optical Phenomena of Crystals,' Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, v. 127 no. 1, 1837, pp. 29-36. This was summarised in WHFT, ‘On Analytic Crystals’, Philosophical Magazine, s. 3 v. 14 no. 85, January 1839, pp. 19–21, plates I-III.
5. London.