5. Richmond Grove
Barnsbury. N

18^th June 1874

Dear Sir

I will tell Mabey to send you back your paper at once when you can add to it what you please

I saw M^r Smith ^<1> the day after his return from Assyria, he has brought back many tablets, and portions of the Izdubar ^<2> series of legends and will give us a full report at a special meeting to be held on the 7^th July.

The new part of the Tran^{s <3>} is simply stopping for the corrections to M^r J. W. Bosanquets ^<4> paper

You will soon receive several circulars from the Society, please to reply to the one respecting the intended lectures

I have been asked to suggest to you that the Egyptian papyrus is not the skin or bark of the rush, which properly has no such integument but thin sections of the stem laid crossways thus <illustrations>

Yours fa^lly

W R Cooper

H. Fox Talbot. Esq. F.R.S

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Notes:

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

2. Isdubar (also Izdubar) assasinated Istar’s love Tammuz, and she descended to Hades to find him. WHFT wrote several papers on the descent of Istar (also Ishtar), in this instance, ‘Ishtar and Isdubar, being the Sixth Tablet of the Izdubar Series. Translated from the Cuneiform’, read 4 April 1876, Transactions of the Society of Biblical Archaeology, v.5 part 1, June 1876, pp.97–121.

3. Transactions of the Society of Biblical Archaeology (London).

4. James Watman Bosanquet (1804–1877), banker & author.