Edinburgh 13 Great Stuart St
March 15. 1871
My Dear Sir
I send you the short paper which I promised in my last letter of the 10th inst. ‘on an Eclipse in the time of Assurbanipal’: which if you think fit, can be read at an early meeting of the Society – If you publish ‘Proceedings’, this will not take when printed more than 3 or 4 pages –<1>
If it is the intention of the Authorities of the B. Museum to send me a Copy of their new volume,<2> will you request them to do so soon? because I shall not stay very much longer in Edinburgh, and it would be inconvenient to have so large a volume forwarded after me from place to place.
I have not heard when the meeting for the Inauguration of the Society<3> is to take place. I hope it will be successful and that more members may be induced to join.
Believe me Yours vy Truly
H. F. Talbot
S. Birch Esq B. Musm
Notes:
1. WHFT, 'On an Ancient Eclipse', read 4 April 1871, Transactions of the Society of Biblical Archæology, v. 1 pt. 1, January 1872, pp. 13-19; 'Additions', v. 1 pt. 2, December 1872, pp. 348-353.
2. British Museum, Department of Egyptian and Assyrian Antiquities, The Cuneiform Inscriptions of Western Asia, v. 3, 1870 - for WHFT's request, see Doc. No: 09754.
3. This was on 21 March 1871. Birch published his inaugural address: The progress of biblical archaeology, Reprinted ... from the British and Foreign Evangelical Review as a 12 page booklet that year.