BM
24h May 1874
My dear Sir,
There is I am afraid not a great deal to tell you as Mr. Smith <1> has not yet returned although he is expected daily. He has been at war with the Turks ever since his return to Mosal as the Governor threw every possible impediment in the way and even detained the results of his excavations. It required a good of application to the Foreign office to pull him through His last telegraphic despatch however announces that his treasures would be despatched from Alexandretta to [illegible deletion] Liverpool on the 18h Instant – They are not as far as I can judge of very great importance completing rather wanting portions of what we already have than adding new historical documents to our story. The Arabs have tapped one of the Babylonian libraries and documents of the later dynasty of Nebuchadnezzar are finding their way to England but they are all sale tablets, <2> and therefore of inferior interest. Your news about Schrader <3> is excellent – dull of perception – The Germans are indefatigable in the elimination of problems when they comprehend the purport of the new idea presented to their minds. In new discoveries we are always 10 years ahead of them. I hope you will join the International Congress & come to London. Schrader is coming over and all learned Oriental Germany. It will be a good occasion to make their acquaintance. Unfortunately it takes place in the Autumn when no one is here in London The Egyptian volume of the records of the past <4> will be out in July – the second Assyrian Volume at Christmas Bagsters <5> [illegible] are taking up the work in earnest.
Believe me Yours very truly
S Birch
H. Fox Talbot Esq
[envelope:]
H. Fox Talbot Esq
Lacock Abbey
Chippenham
Notes:
1. George Smith (1840–1876), Assyriologist.
2. Contract tablets.
3. Dr Eberhard Schrader (1836–1908), German orientalist & theologian.
4. Records of the Past being English Translations of the Assyrian and Egyptian Monuments (London: Samuel Bagster & Sons).
5. Bagster & Sons, publishers in London.