Reading Thursday morning
Dear Sir,
The accompanying reply of Mr Heritage to my last application is just to hand. If you should think it desirable to reopen the matter in person and to try the experiment with the moveable Screens so as to settle the question with the Neighbours I will run up to Town in the morning on receiving your letter. As Mr Heritage will be out on Saturday it will be requisite to attend to it tomorrow if you are disposed to entertain his offer, which is, however, precisely the same as before, save £10, the additional room on the third floor he consented to give up on our last interview.
I have just had a line from Mr Goddard<1> stating reasons for not being here sooner. He hopes to be with us in a day or two.
I expected a letter from Malone<2> but I believe he consults his Father before taking any step of this sort and that is probably the cause of delay. I enclose another application received Yesterday.
In haste Dear Sir Yrs very obly
B Cowderoy
[over]
P.S. I hope this will reach you in time for a reply by this Evening’s Mail, as in the event of my not coming to Town to attend to this matter I must leave home for the day on other business.
H. F. Talbot Eq
Notes:
1. John Frederick Goddard (1797-1866) shared many interests with WHFT, including polarised light before the introduction of photography. Goddard went to work for the London Daguerreotypist, Richard Beard, and in 1840 discovered the applicability of bromine in sensitising Daguerreotype plates; this immediately made portraiture practical. In 1842, Goddard visited Lacock Abbey and photographed with Talbot and Nicolaas Henneman. Goddard returned to London brimming with enthusiasm for the paper negative process, fitting out a special room at the Western Establishment to conduct further experiments. Although few details of this period are known, something did not work out, and Goddard wound up being a Daguerreotypist in the provincial town of Ryde. His contributions to the early success of the Daguerreotype were recognised by the photographic community with a subscription to provide him with an annuity in his old age. See Larry J. Schaaf, Sun Pictures Catalogue 9: William Henry Fox Talbot, Friends & Relations (New York: Hans P. Kraus, Jr., Inc., 1999), pp. 22-29.
2. Thomas Augustine Malone (1823-1867), chemist, partner with Nicolaas Henneman, photographer.