Malta –
4^th April

My dear Sir/

I have been round Sicily – & 15 days in Pompeii – where I expended all my paper that was available – such a very large proportion of the last sent being full of spots – like that in the negative sent of Cathedral in Palermo – I obtained however some very good at Pompeii – but you see how I fail in copying them – they become so red & indistinct in the first warm water – then so faint in the hyp. sulph. bath -^<1> tho’ always looking perfect in copying press till the fixing process commences. – With all your very kind advice, & liberality in presents of paper &c I find the art too expensive for me – & must try to succeed only in the copying those I have. When at Grigenti,^<2> Etna &c I had not a single sheet of iodised paper ^<3> available – tho’ I had my camera – nor could I after many trials prepare a sheet there – tho’ at Pompeii I succeeded with some 10 in a row of my own preparing, a very small proportion of those I attempted to form. but Cowderoy’s ^<4> old paper, as far as it went, was excellent: – nothing could be better –

I long since wrote to Cowderoy (when I sent to him the am^t of his bill) for a bottle of the prepared mixture with which he takes his copies – but I have not heard from him since: nor received any of M^t Etna, or other copies sent to him last Oc^br Your sun however is not so bright as ours. – He could always forward any thing, twice a month, thro’ my brother ^<5> as I directed him.–

I collected a few seeds ^<6> for you – of which I hastily enclose a sample – as the sooner they are in the ground the better – more shall follow – I am but just returned – &

[illegible] my dear Sir, [illegible]
Geo W Bridges

Any instructions to improve the copying process, I shall be most grateful for. –Pray pardon the great haste with which I close this – just arrived from sea – & the steamer going on – but the season for seeds is passing –

H. Fox Talbot Esq^re
Laycock Abbey
Chippenham
Wiltshire
England
via Southampton

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Notes:

1. Hypo sulphite or hypo.

2. Agrigento, Sicily.

3. Paper prepared for making calotypes.

4. Benjamin Cowderoy (1812–1904), land agent in Reading; business manager for WHFT; later a politician in Australia.

5. John W. Bridges.

6. See Doc. No: 05946.