Lacock
Janry 18
My dear Constance
I send you the Academy with the life of Mrs Somerville, <1> it was very good of Mr Menteith <2> to send it me, but I had already received a copy from the Publishers.
The book you forwarded by the carrier was a copy of Records of the Past, <3> presented by Messrs Bagster <4> the publishers very handsomely bound. It contains Assyrian translations, four of them by myself, others by Mr G. Smith Sir Henry Rawlinson &c<5> It is very neatly got up and only costs 3/6, therefore it ought to meet with a sale sufficient to defray expenses
A second volume will appear in July, “Egyptian translations” – Today was very dark and rainy.
Mr Merewether <6> has given up Inwood, <7> therefore we shall have no more pheasants from him. He expresses thanks for having had permission to shoot there, and sends salutation to the ladies –
It will be 3 weeks before the snowdrops are in perfection. You need not send me the Charities Voting Reform papers.
I have not used the carriage since I return’d home. Ela <8> used it one day – The coachman says nobody in particular broke it, but it is so weakly constructed that it gives way –
Your affte
Henry
Notes:
1. Frances Power Cobbe, ‘Review of Martha Somerville – Personal Recollections from Early Life to Old Age of Mary Somerville, with Selections from her Correspondence’ (Murray, 1873), in The Academy: A monthly record of literature, learning, science and art, Saturday, 3 January 1874. Mary Somerville, née Fairfax (1780–1872), writer on science.
2. Probably a misspelling for Charles Granville Stuart Menteath (1800–1880), barrister .
3. Records of the Past being English Translations of the Assyrian and Egyptian Monuments (London: Samuel Bagster & Sons).
4. Bagsters & Sons, publishers in London.
5. George Smith (1840–1876), Assyriologist, and Sir Henry Creswicke Rawlinson, 1st Baronet (1810–1895), orientalist.
6. Henry Alworth Merewether, jnr (1813–1877), JP, author & Recorder for Devizes.
7. Inwood, near Lacock, Wiltshire.
8. Ela Theresa Talbot (1835–1893), WHFT’s 1st daughter.