Sir/
Understanding from my friend Bowles that he is preparing a History of Laycock Abbey,<1> I write a line to you to say that I shall most cheerfully contribute any thing in my power, and I have some sketches, engravings & MSS - I suppose you have a small pamphlet written & printed by a priest at Laycock - some years back - I have two engravings - a view of the Cloister - and a view of the whole building from the S.E angle - one published in Beauties of Britain & the other in Architectural Antiqs<2> - Which prints I presume you have seen copies of - the Sketches & Diary I have are views of the pot - the old Kitchen, with the large stone trough - or vat - the chapel - cloister - with Plan of the whole building - a view of the Church - a cross in the Village - &c -Should you wish for copies of any of them, they are at your Service. Mr Provis of Chippenham <3>has a MS. Vol of mine containing large collections for the hundreds of Chippenham & N Damerham, which I propose to publish at no distant time, if I can obtain that patronage in the county to secure me against loss - It is my intention to vist N. Wittre next Summer. In the mean time should you have occassion to visit this part of London I shall be glad to see you here, & show you some of my Wiltshire Collection.
I remain yr Obedt Servt
J Britton
Feby 12 3-
17 Burton St
PS- You will see at the end of the preface to my Vol on N. Wiltse an account of the work I prose on Chippenham &c Hundred
W H F Talbot Esq MP-
Notes:
1. Rev William Lisle Bowles (1762–1850), Wiltshire poet & antiquary. William Lisle Bowles and John Gough Nichols, Annals and Antiquities of Lacock Abbey (London: 1835).
2. John Britton, The architectural antiquities of Great Britain, represented and illustrated in a series of views, elevations, plans, sections, and details, of various ancient English edifices: with historical and descriptive accounts of each (London: London, Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, 1807). Britton & Edward Wedlake Brayley, The Beauties of Britain and Wales, or Original Delineations, Topographical, Historical and Descriptive of Each County. Embellished with Engravings (London: various publishers, 1801-1816).
3. Probably John Provis, a timber merchant with an extensive library and a large collection of fossils, who lectured on the history of Chippenham. His son Alfred (b. 1818) was an artist who specialised in depictions of old buildings, but rarely ventured out of London.