Aug. 13 1863
Dear Sir,
Your’s [sic] of yesterday recd, & I merely write this line to say, as you are travelling & the B.A. meeting is close at hand, that whereas I propose to ask your acceptance of 12 copies of the Observatory Pamphlet containing all the plates, as well as half the stock of the copper plate impressions, – I shall send them all to Millburn Tower<1> if I do not hear to the contrary from you. –
but if any other address would suit you better for the whole, or if you would like any of them sent to any particular parties, I shall be most happy to forward them accordingly, on receiving a note of the addresses
& remain Yours truly
C. Piazzi Smyth
H. Fox Talbot Esqre.
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 .