F. O. ^<1>
7 March

Dear Henry

How you must grudge this fine weather to the Assizes – I wish you could photogenize the Courts – At least if tomorrow is a fine Sunday can you not photogenize the Cathedral? ^<2> I conclude you have your instruments with you.

If you do take off the Cathedral Let me recommend to take nearly a front view – of whatever side you copy – so as to give the lights & shade of the ornaments rather than the masses – I say this, because there is a famous point of view in which the church is usually drawn, some half way along the diagonal path across the Close – which gives the masses, seen in perspective, at the most picturesque angle – but I am afraid in that case that the architectural details would not come out in the shady corners & that our reflected lights would not be strong or clear enough to produce the required effects, By the way that will be the dark side of the Church this time of year. I would rather take the West end nearly full, when the sun has come round enough to give light & shade to the details & to detach the lines On a South front you might vary your position a little more – on the West the light being weaker I should think you must take your view near & opposite.

Your last, of Statuary, are an immense improvement. I am going to show them to M^r Cresy ^<3> the Architect a man of very great taste – I wish there was anything architectural in the specimens in Sackville Street ^<4> to show him.

I hope you will try my plan of drawing from a looking glass, with objects reflected in it of course. I think I shall when I am at Frankfurt ask you for some patterns of lace, cotton print & other fabrics to take people in at a stall in the fair.

This is my last day at F. O. I do not go to Dorsetsh till Thursday

Y^rs truly
W F Strangways

[enclosed on a separate sheet]

I class Photogenic Drawings into the following ten divisions

Sculpture
Architecture
Landscape
Insects
Plants
Facsimiles
Lace
Cotton
Prints
Microscopica

Two or three of these styles might be brought into one drawing & if well combined would make a better specimen of the art.

[envelope]
Privatere
High Sherriff
Salisbury

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Notes:

1. Foreign Office.

2. Salisbury Cathedral. Salisbury, being the county town of Wiltshire, is where the Assizes are held. [See Doc. No: 02627]. It is apparent from Doc. No: 04353, that WHFT did not photograph the cathedral at this time.

3. Edward Cresy (1792–1858), architect.

4. 31 Sackville Street, London residence of the Feildings, often used as a London base by WHFT.