My Dear Mr Talbot,
In case you might be disinclined to go out this evening to the Photographic Society, <1> I beg to mention that I have this instant received from Manchester a portion of Magnesium Wire with which we hope to be able to take a Photograph at the Society. <2>
I am Ever Most Truly yrs
D Brewster
24 Charlotte Sqe <3>
Monday
Notes:
1. The Edinburgh Photographic Society.
2. At that meeting John Moffat (1819–1894), Scottish engraver & photographer took a portrait of Brewster and Talbot together by the light of burning magnesium; it was reproduced as a carte-de-visite. See H. J. P. Arnold, William Henry Fox Talbot: Pioneer of Photography and Man of Science (London: Hutchinson Benham, 1977), plate 3.
3. The largest and grandest square in Edinburgh, at the western end of Princes Street.