Cambridge, <1>
November 20th 1818
I had to defend the cause of the Druids: <2> than which there never was a more untenable. I confined myself to general assertions – I have begun Humboldts personal Narrative <3> and got him as far as the island of Graciosa, near Teneriffe. It is the English Translation, destitute of Maps, and most of the plates, which is wretched. How I am to comprehend his Sth American travels without maps, I cannot conceive. – The two plates of Cotopaxi, and Jorullo <4> are very striking. That of Chimboraco <5> [sic] is more like what one wd expect. I have found the Cambridge artizans so unable to execute the instruments I had imagined, (with any degree of accuracy) that I have almost determined to lay aside all thoughts of them for the present. – The last batch of Coffee was very bad, scarcely drinkable. It was burnt to nothing, and horribly greasy. The first was very good indeed.
With my telescope I can perceive the shadow of Saturn’s ring upon the body of the planet, – Only one of his satellites is to be seen with my telescope, but that this one is very plain.
[illegible deletion] [illustration] [illegible deletion]
The annexed sketch represents it somewhat larger than it appears through my glass – The ring is at present seen nearly edgewise. You observe, the shadow falls on the planet considerably above the plane of the ring, but this is owing to my telescope inverting objects: for in fact it falls below. – I do not believe that this phenomenon (the shadow) has been often seen through so small a telescope as mine. It is not perceptible unless I fix the telescope very steadily. –
Yr Affte Son
W. H. F. Talbot.
Write soon.
Captain Webb <6> has been recently employed in measuring the height of the Himalaya mountains. Of the elevations measured by him, forty exceed the Peak of Teneriffe, out of which seventeen are higher than Chimboraço.
My edition of Humboldt terminates abruptly after carrying him no further than Cumana, <7> and the salt marshes of Araya. <8> – I think it would be extremely pleasant to spend a summer at [Te]neriffe. <9> It is only a fortnight’s sail
The Lady Elisth Feilding
Marine Parade
Brighthelmstone.
Notes:
1. Trinity College, Cambridge.
2. See Doc. No: 00830.
3. Probably an edition of Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander von Humboldt’s Personal Narrative of Travels to the Equinoctial Regions of the New Continent, during the years 1799-1804 (London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, 1818).
4. Cotopaxi volcano, Ecuador, and Jorullo volcano, Michoacan-Guanajuato volcanic field, Mexico.
5. Chimboraço, Ecuador.
6. Capt William Spencer Webb (1784-1865), army officer, surveyor, and explorer in India. Contemporary opinion disputed the heights he reported in the Himalayas.
7. Cumana, Venezuela, had been for centuries the centre of the most horrible earthquakes.
8. Peninsula of Araya, Venezuela.
9. Text torn away under seal.