My dear Sir

I have been much pleased with the your temperate & effectual reply to the Quarterly critic, in the Literary Gaz^e ?^<1> treated

I have had a packet directed to you for some time past, & wish to know if you propose to be in Town soon, or in what way I can best send it –

Y^rs very truly
J Britton

17 Bruton S^t
Tavistock Lge
Jany 8 / 48

H Fox Talbot Esq

PS – I have often wished to write an acco^t of your Cloister for the Soc^y of Antiquaries: as a fine specimen – if not the most perfect, remaining in England – attached to a modern residence. – Have you any plan you could lend me, or views?

[envelope:]
Henry Fox Talbot Esq
Lacock Abbey
Chippenham
Wilts

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Notes:

1. John Wilson Croker wrote an extremely negative review of WHFT's English Etymologies (London: J. Murray, 1847), in Quarterly Review, v. 81, September 1847, pp. 500–525. WHFT replied to this review in ‘The Reviewer Reviewed’, The Literary Gazette and Journal of belles lettres, science and art, no. 1615, 1 January 1848, pp. 1-6. See Doc. No: 06078. John Wilson Croker (1780-1857), Irish-born, was a Tory MP from 1807 to 1832 and Secretary of the Admiralty from 1810 to 1830. As an author, he was noted for his virulent reviews in The Quarterly Review as much as for his 1831 edition of Boswell's Live of Johnson.