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Document number: 8516
Date: 03 Feb 1862
Recipient: TALBOT William Henry Fox
Author: ABBOTT Francis
Collection: British Library, London, Manuscripts - Fox Talbot Collection
Collection number historic: LA63-10
Last updated: 21st August 2010

[printed at top left with handwritten insertion]
On any further Correspondence on this subject, be good enough to quote the Register Number 1/16/1

[printed letterhead/address]
General Post Office,
Edinburgh,

3rd Feby 1862.

Sir,

I beg to acquaint you that I have enquired into the representation, you addressed to me on the 15th Ultimo, and have received an explanation from the messenger, who delivers your correspondence, to the effect, that he had lost his whistle on the day referred to, and, altho’ he more than once endeavored to make himself heard, your gardener’s wife, who usually attends his call, could not be seen.

I do not, however, entirely relieve the messenger from blame in this matter, but I trust the notice which I have taken of the circumstance will secure you from any further inconvenience.

I am sorry for the trouble which you have already had

I am, Sir, Your obedient Servant.
F Abbott

Secretary.

H. Fox Talbot Esq.
Millburn Tower <1>
Gogar
Edinburgh

[address panel:]
[printed at top]
On Her Majesty’s Service

H. Fox Talbot Esq
Millburn Tower
Gogar
Edinburgh.

[printed at lower left]
General Post Office,
Edinburgh.


Notes:

1. Millburn Tower, Gogar, just west of Edinburgh; the Talbot family made it their northern home from June 1861 to November 1863. It is particularly important because WHFT conducted many of his photoglyphic engraving experiments there. The house had a rich history. Built for Sir Robert Liston (1742-1836), an 1805 design by Benjamin Latrobe for a round building was contemplated but in 1806 a small house was built to the design of William Atkinson (1773-1839), best known for Sir Walter Scott’s Abbotsford. The distinctive Gothic exterior was raised in 1815 and an additional extension built in 1821. Liston had been ambassador to the United States and maintained a warm Anglo-American relationship in the years 1796-1800. His wife, the botanist Henrietta Liston, née Marchant (1751-1828) designed a lavish American garden, sadly largely gone by the time the Talbots rented the house .

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