Wednesday 24th June
My Dear Henry
I was on the point of speaking to Lord Lansdowne, <1> when I suddenly understood that I was not quite clear What it is that Daguerre <2> wanted to do in this Country, whether a patent or what? so pray enlighten me by return of post that I may be forcible & explicit. I have already stuck in the Eleven photographs & that Album <3> is sent to Kit <4> who wanted to shew it to an Artist. William <5> has never returned the other Album, or it may be Lady Canning who has detained it. Kit thinks he can claim a peerage that is in abeyance if he can prove the marriage of Elizabeth Leighton. <6> It is no use to write a note to Mr Carpmael <7> till those Albums are returned, when they are I can let him know. I shall preserve the advertisement you enclose as a memorial of your Shrievalty. Lord Lansdowne has got the gout, but his fits never last long
Affy Yr
EF
Caroline <8> is not yet come, they are so long putting themselves in motion
Scientific Memoirs <9> are left here for you, shall they be sent? They can go to you as a letter if you like it – as I see a man has sent an iron plough share
Notes:
1. Henry Petty Fitzmaurice, 3rd Marquess of Lansdowne (1780–1863), MP, WHFT’s uncle.
2. Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre (1787–1851), French artist, showman & inventor.
3. See Doc. No: 04100.
4. Christopher Rice Mansel Talbot (1803–1890), immensely wealthy landowner, mathematician & politician; WHFT’s Welsh cousin.
5. William Thomas Horner Fox Strangways, 4th Earl of Ilchester (1795–1865), botanist, art collector & diplomat.
6. She married Sherington Talbot. [See Doc. No: 04106].
7. William Carpmael (1804–1867), patent agent & engineer, London.
8. Caroline Augusta Edgcumbe, née Feilding, Lady Mt Edgcumbe (1808–1881); WHFT’s half-sister.
9. Scientific memoirs, selected from the transactions of foreign academies of science and learned societies (London: R. and J. E. Taylor, 1837–1852).