D^r Hincks

Millburn^<1> March 4 – 62

D^r Sir

I agree with you in all your values of except dha which I have not found. I have not seen used as kat except when it signifies a hand. for nul I have never seen.

The polyphone values are among the Chief difficulties of the language and I am persuaded they must have occasionally Caused embarrassment to the Assyrians themselves. Probably the bulk of the population was uneducated, and unable to read and write: but those persons who could read a little only, must have been sadly puzzled by the polyphones and the other peculiarities of this language.

I am not surprised that modern literati are reluctant to admit the fact of their existence, so opposed to all the former facts of philology. I do not think you will be able to make a convert of Oppert in the matter of and רכד, but I shall be very glad to see your promised refutation of him when you publish it. I may be wrong as to Rawlinson and, domus aquæ, but I certainly thought he had somewhere published an opinion that was analogous to Neptune, or even to Noah, and the domus aquæ was a tradition of Noah’s ark.

I remain D^r Sir Yours very truly
H. F. Talbot

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 .