32 St James’s Place
Monday evening – Septemr 18.
My dear Father.
I spent some time today looking about the British Museum and there I saw several things which I had never noticd noticed. I did not know before that the Assyrias Assyrians were such artists. In the a large lion hunt and some others of their sculptures down stairs, the d lions are beautifully done made & look very natural, and altogether the drawing execution of them is very delicate & good – & some of their small bronze one plates with ornaments on them are very good indeed.
I dont think I was ever in the basement part of the Assyrian collections before, which interested me perhaps more than the other part. One thing that is very amusing is a lion hunt in which it is evident that they had their lions ready in traps, & let them out & then there are several more lifting up the doors of traps & lions coming out rabid. There are a great many portions of Roman paving down stairs which want arranging rather. In another place I found two articles of Roman work for from North Wraxall presented by Mr Scrope, <1> one was a glass funnel, & the other I forget. I saw several interesting manuscripts amongst others MAGNA CHARTA <2> of which very little seems to be legible and which looks more like a bit of old skin than an important document. There are some other charters & several interesting manuscripts, amongst others a jo memoir journal of the Duke of Monmouth in which he talks about going to Bridges which after some time I found meant Bruges. There is the document, indenture of or whatever it is – relating to the foundation of Henry VIIs chapel which the original binding and the Tudor emblems on it. I saw Uncle William <3> on Sunday who is pretty well & is going to stay a few days I believe. How unlucky was the death of Captain Speke <4> at Neston the other day. It will not be made out I suppose exactly how the accident happened. I know Mr George Fuller <5> who was out shooting with him at the time. I went to look at the Battersea Park on Sunday which is very pretty & you would like to see the subtropical part where all the plants which ought to grow in greenhouses are growing in the open air. I found my self at South Kensington today so I went into the Museum of Patents <6> where I had never been. It is very interesting and appears to be ve nearly full & so will require enlarging soon I should think there. There are the two first engines employed on Railways, also the 1st Engine that Watt <7> constructed – & many other things. And whilst I was thinking of patents an idea occurred to me which was to suggest that you should sell your Photoglyphic patent as I suppose nobody has taken out any license [sic] yet, and then you might invent something new. For the patent whould would be sure to pay any one who would make a business of it, & make photoglyphs for sale as if they had a few blemishes he could touch them up, and therefore it might be expected that some photographer or other might be found to give a fair price of for the patent. For I dont myself see what is the use of a patent when the inventor does not work it himself as a matter of business & when nobody takes out any licenses, whereas a person in trade would make it pay directly & there must be many people sufficiently discerning to perceive this & to be willing to buy it. The invention may be now be considered quite perfect an enough to be worked & I am sure you would find it very amu a variety to start with something new. Please tell me what you think of my proposition. It seems to me that under the existing sy system an inventor cannot expect to protect the principle involved but merely the exact mode of working specified, and then there is the chance that that that [sic] may be the best after all, or it may at any rate have a good run before any one finds a means of improving it – but if it the patent remains inoperative till some one else improves on the process then it seems to me that it loses its value altogether. One People talk about the patent law obstructing the progress of an invention but two theorys it occurs to me first that it is only one particular manufacture or art process which would be improved more rapidly if the law did not exist whereas people are driven to find out new ways & consequently make new discoveries in order to avoid the patent – So a patent seems to be a thing which ought to be pushed well in its infancy as it is likely to lose its value before its term of duration expires. It seems to be undeniable that the great variety of ingenious contrivances which one sees at the Museum of Patents must be the the effect of the system. I wrote to Wilkins <8> the other day and I should be glad if somebody would ask him if he got my letter. I am thinking whether it would be advisable for me to join a club here – one must gravitate to London now and then for a few days. , & such I would not join the Public Schools club there is a junior University in which some of my friends are and I mean to enquire the particulars of it.
I hope Monie <9> & Mamma <10> are pretty well
Your affect Son –
Charles
Notes:
1. George Julius Duncombe Poulett Scrope (1797–1876), MP & scientist.
2. The charter of English political and civil liberties granted by King John at Runnymede in June 1215.
3. William Thomas Horner Fox Strangways, 4th Earl of Ilchester (1795–1865), botanist, art collector & diplomat.
4. John Hanning Speke (1827– 15 September 1864), discoverer of the source of the Nile, accidentally shot himself fatally when partridge-shooting.
5. John Bird Fuller (1801–1872), High Sheriff, Captain Speke’s uncle-in-law.
6. In 1864, the Museum of Patents was renamed The Patent Office Museum.
7. James Watt, (1736–1819), engineer and steam engine pioneer. In 1861, the collection acquired the two earliest Boulton & Watt beam engines with a separate condenser, the oldest to provide rotary power. In 1862, Puffing Billy, The Rocket and the engine from Comet were added.
8. George Wilkins (b. 1814), gardener at Lacock.
9. Rosamond Constance ‘Monie’ Talbot (1837–1906), artist & WHFT’s 2nd daughter.
10. Constance Talbot, née Mundy (1811–1880), WHFT’s wife.