BM
3d March 1874
My dear Sir,
You will receive this letter to let you know that Mr Fr. Lenormant <1> has come over and is engaged studying Assyrian As I think you said you would come to town this month you might like to see him before he returns to Paris which will be in about a week The last I heard of Mr Smith <2> was that he was excavating with 30 350 labourers but it did not appear to me that he had discovered any thing very new although several fragments helping to complete our collection had been excavated Our Secretary Mr Cooper <3> will have told you all about the next Assyrian volume of Records of the Past. <4> The first one has proved fairly successful
Yours very trly
S Birch
H Fox Talbot EsqeNotes:
1. François Lenormant (1837–1883), French archaeologist.
2. George Smith (1840–1876), Assyriologist. In reality aproximately 355 labourers excavated. See George Smith to Winter-Jones, 8 January 1874, British Museum Original Papers C, 28th Febrary 1874.
3. William Ricketts Cooper (1843–1878) Secretary, Society of Biblical Archaeology, London.
4. Records of the Past being English Translations of the Assyrian and Egyptian Monuments (London: Samuel Bagster & Sons). The 3rd volume, published in December 1874, was the 2nd publication of the journal on Assyrian Texts.