The Elms
Taunton 6 April 1857.
Sir
I beg to acknowledge the receipt of your obliging note of the 5th Instant, and to thank you for the Antiquarian Essays, which the same Post has brought me – I shall read them with more profit I hope than the modest motto promises.
I have almost to apologize for my last, which, I feel, merits the slight rebuke, which you so gently insinuate; the truth is I had read only the first hundred pages, and finding a mine, I neither tested the purity & richness of the ore, nor the depths to which you had penetrated below the surface – your English Etymologies in its present form is not, I agree, suited to the Class which I indicated, – wd be caviare to the multitude[.] if reduced to the form you mention it might be very useful, but the time necessary for selection would perhaps be better spent by a humbler pen than the author’s.
That the time is coming, when our dear natures tongue shall take its stand & perhaps place I fervently hope; & from the pure well of English undefiled may rivers flow fertilizing & fructifying regions going hitherto in darkness & sterility –
Like the Bourgeoisie gentil’homme our common people may some day realize that their tongues are used in giving utterances to words that breathe the spirit of wisdom, truth & strength, & that their language consists of [Greek phrase].
I am, Sir, yours faithfully
R. G. Badcock
H. F. Talbot Esq