Dear Sir,
When I received your Note <1> of the 20th I was sitting down to express my regret, that in the event of your arranging to come to Leamington I would not be able to assist you at Kenilworth. <2>
On my arrival here from Lacock Abbey I found a letter from my youngest Son <3> who is a Captain in the 76th now at Newry, <4> stating that he had got leave of absence form his Regt and was on his way to Scotland. This intelligence, and engagements to pay two visits on our way to St Andrews prevents me from staying here longer than the end of this week.
I need not say how much I regret this necessity as I had anticipated much pleasure from being your Photographical Assistant at Kenilworth.
I presume your Patent does not prohibit Amateurs from practising the Calotype for their own amusement. Miss Douglas, <5> a Daughter of Admiral Douglas has commissioned me to order a Camera for her from Edinr, if there is no hindrance.
Ever Most Faithfully yrs
D Brewster
Leamington <6>
July 22d 1842
Notes:
1. Not located.
2. Near Warwick. It has an extensive ruined castle. In an undated letter evidently written just prior to this, Constance Talbot, née Mundy (1811–1880), WHFT’s wife reported to Lady Elisabeth Theresa Feilding, née Fox Strangways, first m Talbot (1773–1846), WHFT’s mother ‘…[Henry] has almost promised to go next week to Leamington & take a picture of Warwick Castle with Sir David …’. (LA36-58, Fox Talbot Collection, the British Library). They had evidently hoped to collaborate at Kenilworth as well.
3. Captain Henry Brewster, who was also a pioneering photographer. See Graham Smith, ‘A Group of Early Scottish Calotypes’, The Princeton University Library Chronicle, v. 46 no.1, Autumn 1984, pp. 81–94. See also Doc. No: 04628.
4. In County Down, N. Ireland.
5. Possibly Helen Catherine, daughter of Admiral John Erskine Douglas, who married Captain Colin Mackenzie, Hon. East India Co., 21 November 1843.
6. Royal Leamington Spa, near Warwick, southwest of Birmingham, where the Brewsters were staying for Lady Brewster’s health.