Mount Edgcumbe<1>
Septr 30th 1858
My dear Henry
Lord Mt Edgcumbe<2> has begged me to write & prefer a request to you from him. – There is a man here, I think he is Master Shipwright in Keyham Dockyard, to whom he is under some obligation about his Yacht &c He is a particularly clever man, & a pleasant one to speak to – & though a Shipwright by profession, he is a great amateur of Photography.<3> Now Lord Mt E. is anxious to make him some acknowledgemt for his kindness – & can think of nothing so suitable, or at least which would be so acceptable, as a fine or curious specimen of your Art – & he wishes me to say that he wd be greatly obliged to you, if you would give him a specimen or specimens of the kind, as [illegible deletion] emanating from yourself, the fountain head of the Art. Can & will you do so? He says that something curious or new, wd do almost better than anything very beautiful – at least quite as well – & as we hear by a side wind that you have just brought out a new art, of sun engraving, it is perhaps a propitious moment to make the request. –
I hope Constance<4> has received ere now a haunch of Venison. It was sent off on Tuesday, & I think had better be eaten at once, as it does not keep well this year on account of the mild weather I suppose. I suppose you admire the comet<5> every evening? It is the first comet I ever distinctly saw, in my life – & certainly last night it was magnificent! The atmosphere was beautifully clear – & the end of it’s [sic] tail could be traced almost up to the Great Bear, I think – At all events it was longer than the distance between the 2 stars I have marked A & B<6> – I send a sketch from memory
Yrs afftely
Caroline
[illustration]
Notes:
1. Mt Edgecumbe, near Plymouth: seat of the Earl of Mt Edgcumbe.
2. Ernest Augustus Edgcumbe, Lord Valletort, 3rd Earl of Mt Edgcumbe (1797–1861), WHFT’s brother-in-law and her husband.
3. George Turner (b. 1800) was the Assistant Master Shipwright at Keyham Steam Yard, a facility that had been constructed in 1844 next to the Royal Dockyards at Devonport especially to handle the new replacements for sailing ships. He was a very creative man. His 'Suggestions for promoting economy and increasing the efficiency of Her Majesty's dockyards' was printed by Parliament in 1859. He invented ways of protecting propellers from shot and held a patent for armour plating for ships. Turner was also interested in the history of shipbuilding, being one of the founding members of the Royal Institution of Naval Architects in 1860 and contributing a naval model to the 1876 Loan Exhibition at the Science Museum. In March 1859, not long after this letter, he was appointed Master Shipwright at Woolwich Dockyard. He does not seem to have exhibited his photographs and none are known to have survived. Caroline was surprised and puzzled when her brother did in fact send something novel rather than strictly beautiful, namely, examples of his new Photoglyphic Engraving process - see Doc. No: 07703.
4. Constance Talbot, née Mundy (1811–1880), WHFT’s wife.
5. Donati’s comet.
6. The stars Alkaid and Phad, respectively, in Ursa Major.