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Document number: 8699
Date: 30 Apr 1863
Dating: 1863?
Recipient: TALBOT William Henry Fox
Author: MUNDY Harriot Georgiana, née Frampton
Collection: British Library, London, Manuscripts - Fox Talbot Collection
Last updated: 11th April 2013

43 Upper Grosvenor Street
April 30

My dear Henry

I am charmed with the engraving of the Calke Abbey Seal, which I shall place in my Illustrations of the Histy of Derbyshire,<1> as being a permanent record of it – for people say the Photographs will fade in time. Will you tell me if this is really likely to be the case?<2> – It would be extremely vexatious if the Views of Places &c I have mounted & inserted into the said Book, were to appear as blank pages to my Grand Children!! They would be inclined to consider their old Grandmother as an arrant Cheat. We did not know about your have [sic] shared the honors bestowed on Ld Palmerston<3> untill Caroline<4> informed us of it – and I felt very wrath with Constance & Ela<5> for not have [sic] written to tell us of a circumstance – which gives us so much pleasure & satisfaction – for we never consider that you are half enough appreciated. C’s letter arrived the next day – but she is mistaken in saying that she wrote last, as I took pains to let her know all I could about the poor Gladstones. – Your account of Professor Smyth<6> is very interesting –. He uses the most extraordinary words and expressions in his Book<7> – mostly coined for the occasion – but it amused me very much & I fret to know more about Russia than I ever did before. Now I am reading Mrs Atkinsons’s account of her journey over the Steppes of Tartary<8> – very amusing; but she is a most masculine Lady! Caroline is vexed at having to go into Waiting again for another fortnight. It takes so much out of her time in London – but I hope the change of air will cure her cold. Lucy Nicholl<9> is very ill I fear – Jane’s<10> attack of rheumatic fever is mending. I am very sorry indeed that you are going back to Millburn <11> & prefer being so far away from dear old Lacock Abbey.

Love to all

Yr affte Cousin
H G. Mundy


Notes:

1. Calke Abbey is a 12th c Augustinian priory near Ticknall, Derbyshire. Her History is preserved in the Derby Local Studies Library (A900MSS): 'Lyson's history of Derbyshire, Illustrated by Harriot Georgiana Mundy. Vols 1-6 and index, Markeaton: 1864.' This is a grangerized version of v. 5 of Daniel Lysons, Magna Britannia; Being a Concise Topographical Account of the Several Counties of Great Britain (London: Printed for T. Cadell and W. Davies, 1806-1822).

2. She was right to be concerned about the permanence of photographs, for by 1846 WHFT realised that they would never meet the test of time as book illustrations. That was the primary reason he worked for the rest of his life on reproducing photographs in printer's ink, most notably through Photographic Engraving in 1852 and Photoglyphic Engraving in 1858, both forerunners of the later commercial photogravure process.

3. Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston (1784–1865), statesman, and WHFT were both awarded Honorary Doctor of Laws from Edinburgh University on 1 April 1863. The speech by James Muirhead, Professor of Civil Law, presenting WHFT the degree outlined his 'contributions to knowledge' and was reported in the Edinburgh Evening Courant, no. 23801, 2 April 1863, p. 5.

4. Lady Caroline Augusta Edgcumbe, née Feilding (1808-1881); WHFT's half-sister.

5. Constance Talbot, née Mundy (30 Jan 1811 - 9 Sep 1880), m. WHFT 20 Dec 1832, and Ela Theresa Talbot (25 Apr 1835 - 25 Apr 1893), her 1st daughter.

6. Prof Charles Piazzi Smyth (1819-1900), Astronomer Royal for Scotland, Professor Practical Astronomy at Edinburgh University, and pioneering photographer.

7. Smyth, Three Cities in Russia (London: Lovell Reeve, 1862).

8. Lucy Atkinson, Recollections of Tartar steppes and their inhabitants (New York: John Murray, 1863).

9. Lucy Mary Nicholl (1824-1876), of Merthyr Mawr.

10. Jane Harriot Nicholl, née Talbot (1796-1874), WHFT's cousin.

11. 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 .

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