London
Apl. 5 1842
Sir
By the present I have the honor to introduce to you Mr Goddard <1> for the purpose of receiving the requisite information from you for the working the Calotype.
I am Sir Your mo Ob Hbl Srvt
Richd Beard
H F Talbot Esqre
[address panel:]
H. F. Talbot Esqre
Lacock Abbey
Near Chippenham
Notes:
1. John Frederick Goddard (1797–1866), lecturer & photographer. Goddard was also a chemist, and Beard had hired him in the hope that he could reduce exposure times of the daguerreotype process for which Beard held patent in England, Wales and the town of Berwick-upon-Tweed. Goddard presumably hand-carried this letter of introduction when he visited WHFT at Lacock Abbey on 8 April. The two men and Nicolaas Henneman wound up photographing together. For examples of these, see Larry J. Schaaf, Sun Pictures Catalogue Nine: William Henry Fox Talbot: Friends and Relations (New York: Hans P. Kraus, Jr., Inc., 1999), pp. 22-29.