3 Cavendish Sq
My dear Henry
The value of iron ore can only be ascertained in the iron furnace. Some ores are so refractory & difficult of reduction, that they are dear at any price, while others that look like mere earth & contain little metal are valuable from their qualities of iron making. I would therefore recommend your making arrangements with some iron-master to take 100 tons on trial, at cost price, & you may rely on it that if it makes good iron, you will have no difficulty in letting it at a royalty of so much per ton. I usually let mine at 6d. Our Welsh ores, are argillaceous, & very good for iron-making, but they are becoming scarce & dear, and our iron-masters get ore from Gloucestershire, Somersetshire, Devonshire & Cornwall, but chiefly from Lancashire, as they find the red hæmatite mixed with Welsh ores, makes the best of all irons. An immense tract of Land in Northamptonshire was found to be covered with light brown ion ore, a few years ago, & it was put into canal-barges for the low sum of 2s per ton, but it has fallen now into disuse in Wales on account of the "weakness" of iron made of it. At the present moment the Dowlais Iron Compy is working iron stone 13 miles from the sea to the Southward of Minehead, & making a railway for the sole purpose of shipping iron ore: which will give you an idea of the straits they are put to obtain a sufficient supply.
I would recommend you sending a box of specimens to me, as I shall have an opportunity of shewing them to Mr Bruce the M. P. for Merthyr, and one of the trustees & managers of the principal works there. I have also among the iron-masters a great many intimate friends to whom I could give you introductions if desired, but they will all ask you the same question, "what is your price"? and this you cannot at present answer as the principal element in governing price will be the cost of carriage. Railway carriage is I should think out of the question; you had better ascertain the price at which you can deliver at Bristol, or Cardiff all by water, before writing to the purchaser.
The great Eastern is getting on as well as such a Leviathan can be expected to go on but in my opinion the great difficulties will take place when she is got into the water, for to keep her strait in a tidal river like the Thames will be no easy task, & if she does not go strait but gets on either bank, she is done for. – I have no tutor to recommend. Theodore’s is married and settled in Oxfordshire near Blenheim, but does not take pupils.
Ever Yours truly
CRM Talbot