Dr Hincks
Millburn Tower Edinburgh
<1>
Dec 25/ 61
Dr Sir
I send you another fasciculus of my Assyrn translations extracted from the forthcoming No of the journal of the R. Asiatic Socy. I should have sent this with the other, had I expected to receive it from the printer so soon.
I trust that these translatns may prove of interest to you, especially my version of the Taylor cylinder or Annals of Sennacherib.
Oppert informs me that he has also translated it, and if I understand him rightly, he read his translatn to the assembled savans at the late Frankfort meeting – I asked him whether his transln were yet published? To this question he has not replied. Have you seen M. Ménant’s works? He is judge of the tribunal of Lisieux in Normandy. He has not gone far yet in Assyrian, but he is in the right path.
I shall be very glad to see your remarks on the Birs Nimrud inscrn in the next no of the J.S.L. which I receive regularly. If you have made any remarks upon my transn of it in the vol 18 of the Jl of the R. A. Socy, I hope you adverted to my “additions and correctns“ at p. 362 of the same Vol.
I was much interested to hear that you thought Arioch K. of Ellasar could be identified. Of course, though you do not say so, you identify him with the King called by Rawlinson Urukh; wch I have adopted (see the insn referring to him wch I have transld at page 193 of the pamphlet now sent. If he cd be identified with Arioch it wd be a point gained of the very highest importance. Ellasar accordg to Rawlinson is the modern Senkereh – I think it very likely but I have not seen his proof. Chedorlaomer cannot be Kudur mabuk for many reasons – The only resemblce is in the 1st two syllables, but if Kudur means a throne or a crown as I conjecture, it might form an element in any Kings name.
I remain Dr Sir Yours vy Truly
H.F. Talbot
P.S. I stay here some time longer, if you send me any of your writings. I dissent from Rawlinson’s opinion of the identity of Belshazzar with Bel-sar-ussur son of Nabonidus and I am curious to see your opinion on the subject.
Notes:
1. Millburn Tower, Gogar, just west of Edinburgh; the Talbot family made it their northern home from June 1861 to November 1863. It is particularly important because WHFT conducted many of his photoglyphic engraving experiments there. The house had a rich history. Built for Sir Robert Liston (1742-1836), an 1805 design by Benjamin Latrobe for a round building was contemplated but in 1806 a small house was built to the design of William Atkinson (1773-1839), best known for Sir Walter Scott’s Abbotsford. The distinctive Gothic exterior was raised in 1815 and an additional extension built in 1821. Liston had been ambassador to the United States and maintained a warm Anglo-American relationship in the years 1796-1800. His wife, the botanist Henrietta Liston, née Marchant (1751-1828) designed a lavish American garden, sadly largely gone by the time the Talbots rented the house .