Sackville Street <1>
4th March 1813
My Dear Henry
I have not written to you lately, having been in great affliction about Lady Carnarvon <2> who has been some time most dangerously ill, & I fear is not likely to recover. I cannot find the key of Your Black Truck, Do you remember where you put it. The Blue Phosphorus Box I hunted for everywhere, at last Nurse More produced it out of one of the Closets up stairs, but as I have had no opportunity of getting the things you wished from Accum's,<3> I do not send it, But will soon if you still want them, so let me know. What was that stuff you left in Papers, it looks like Saccharum Saturni, <4> I have put it by that nobody may be poisoned.
Jane <5> has sent you a little Microscope, shall I send it you? - Mr Feilding <6> is here & talks of going into Rutlandshire Monday He is this moment come back from the Levee. [Yo]ur<7> Arum seeds are planted & placed in the Leads near the Kitchen Sky Light in hopes the warmth may bring them on
Evr yrs affly
E T F
W. H. Fox Talbot Esqr
Revd Dr Butler's <8>
Harrow <9>
Sackville St March 4. 1813 <10>
Notes:
1. 31 Sackville Street, London residence of the Feildings, often used as a London base by WHFT.
2. Lady Elizabeth Kitty Carnarvon, née Acland (1772-1813), wife of Henry George Herbert, Lord Porchester, later 2nd Earl of Carnarvon.
3. Friedrich Accum (1769-1838) a chemist and writer in London and an assistant to Humphry Davy at the Royal Institution. Accum was an influential author, a pioneer of gas lighting, and was especially noted for exposing the widespread and dangerous practices of food adulteration. At this time, he operated a shop supplying chemicals and laboratory supplies, taking in a student, Alexander Garden, who later became his partner in Accum & Garden in Soho. In 1820, Accum was caught stealiing pages from books in the library of the Royal Institution and fled to his native Germany. Garden later became a supplier of photographic chemicals to WHFT - see Doc. No: 04632.
4. Sugar of lead or lead acetate.
5. Jane Harriot Nicholl, née Talbot (1796-1874).
6. Rear Admiral Charles Feilding (1780-1837), Royal Navy; WHFT's step-father.
7. Text obscured under seal.
8. Rev George Butler (1774-1853), Headmaster at Harrow.
9. Harrow School: WHFT attended from 1811-1815 and his son Charles from 1855-1859.
10. Written in another hand at the back of address panel.