4 Circus Bath ^<1>

May 12

My dear Sir

The news in your last letter, that M^r Smith ^<2> was going again to Mesopotamia, interested me very much, and at the same time surprized me, for I knew that the firman had expired, and from the animus shown by the Turkish Government I thought they would have refused to renew it. I have often thought that if the Trustees would give a handsome douceur to the Pasha of Mosul he would see M^r Smith’s excavations in a very different light.

I hope M^r Smith will soon favour the world with the cuneiform text of the Creation and Fall of Man ^<3>

His announcement of that new discovery created quite a sensation.

I am not acquainted with M^r Boscawen ^<4> the Assyriologist.

Believe me Yours truly

H. F. Talbot

D^r Birch
B. Mus^m

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Notes:

1. 4 the Circus, Bath; frequent summer home of Constance Talbot, now a Museum of Costume.

2. George Smith (1840–1876), Assyriologist. He was sent by the British Museum to excavate the rest of Assurbanipal’s library, but unfortunately he died in August 1876, while still on a mission.

3. George Smith, The Chaldean Account of Genesis (New York: Scribner, Armstrong & Co., 1876).

4. William St Chad Boscawen (1854–1913), Assyriologist & author.