Nov. 9 – 63
Millburn tower Edinburgh <1>
Dr Sir
I have the pleasure to send you two more of my Assyrn translations – One of them is the inscription of Khammurbi who I think was contemporary with Tiglath Pileser I and therefore lived about 1120 B.C. Only two Assyrian inscriptions are known of the Proto-Chaldæan Kings, they are therefore very important – Especially as they prove evidently that that language was not only fully formed at that ancient period, but was nearly identically written in Babylonia & Assyria, in short that there were not two dialects of it, but the same prevailed both in the North & South.
I have found a notice in the inscriptions, unfortunately very obscure, that there was an eclipse of the sun in the first year of Esarhaddon – Is such eclipse otherwise known? and as none but great ones were likely to be noticed in those times, is it likely to be of any chronological use? no month or day being given, and the date of his accession being uncertain.
Believe me Yours vy Truly
H. F. Talbot
Revd Dr Hincks
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 .