D^r Birch
B. Mus^m

Lacock Abbey

March 4 1874

Dear Sir

Thanks for your letter. I have written a few lines to M. Lenormant, ^<1> which I enclose, will you kindly deliver them to him when you see him next?

I am glad to hear that M^r G. Smith ^<2> is no longer impeded by the Turkish Governor of Mosul. I shall not be able to come to Town so soon as I expected.

I hardly thought that the vol. 1. of Records of the Past ^<3> would be, as you say, fairly successful, for it is evidently too dry for the public taste; being only, as it were, a collection of materials for other pens to write about, and make interesting – I am reading M. Chabas’ ^<4> last work “Recherches pour servir à Histoire des Temps de l’Exode”.

I find it very interesting – I have long studied hieroglyphics, but have never written anything on that subject.

Believe me Yours vy truly

H. F. Talbot

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Notes:

1. François Lenormant (1837–1883), French archaeologist.

2. George Smith (1840–1876), Assyriologist.

3. Records of the Past being English Translations of the Assyrian and Egyptian Monuments (London: Samuel Bagster & Sons).

4. François Joseph Chabas (1817–1882), French Egyptologist, Recherches pour servir à l’histoire de la XIXme dynastie, et spécialement à celle des temps de l’Exode (Paris: 1873).