6 Michael’s Grove SW
19h January, 1871
My dear Sir
I may thank you in the name of the students of Assyrian for your prompt response, and the cheque for £25••0••0, which I shall give to Smith as soon as I see him. I have at once written to him, and hope you will receive his reply and a copy of all that is completed (to p. 144.) two or three more sheets are in type; the whole of the work is ready for printing, Smith tells me, and the Commentary, pièces justifications all compiled, though hardly ready for print I am inclined to agree with you as to [cuneiform], only that I have some doubt of [cuneiform] signifying “death” as well as “dead body”, and Smith finds [cuneiform] further on as an equivalent of [cuneiform] a bow I do not know his authority for [cuneiform] nor why he reads gallu in l. 71, p. 106, but I have no doubt he has reasons, though I may not always accept them.
I have not heard of the Biblical Archæological Society. I rarely leave my house now; never in bad weather, which is the rule in London just now. If it is the proposed Association for making researches in Palestine, Assyria, Egypt, and elsewhere meeting at the Soane Museum, I think it would be more likely to prosper by exclusive restriction to one field of enquiry.
Yours faithfully,
Edwin Norris.
H. Fox Talbot Esq
&c &c
[envelope:]
Henry Fox Talbot Esq
Lacock Abbey
Chippenham