5, Lansdowne Circus,
Leamington.
Feb. 10. 1862
Sir
As a perfect stranger to you I beg to apologise for the liberty of addressing you, but hope that the love of science will induce you to excuse it.
When I was in the Medal Room of the British Museum last Tuesday, my friend Mr Vaux shewed me a slip copy of an article by you upon an Assyrian [cuneatic?] inscription in which you believed you had discovered an earlier record of the coinage of money than we had previously possessed. As the origin of money has been a subject which has occupied my attention for many years past, and upon which I have published a number of articles in the Numismatic Chronicle, I should much like to peruse carefully your communication, which I had not the opportunity of doing at the Museum. Would you therefore do me the favour to lend me a slip copy for the purpose, which I would return as soon as I had made extracts from it.
Mr Vaux has assured me you would pardon this application, and also any observations I might make to you upon the subject of your paper.
I have the honour to be, Sir, Yours obediently
W B Dickinson
H. Fox Talbot Esqr
Milburn Tower,<1>
Edinburgh.
[envelope, annotated by WHFT "Mr Dickinson, Lemington":]
H. F. Talbot Esqre
Milburn Tower
Edinburgh
Notes:
1. Millburn Tower, Gogar, just west of Edinburgh; the Talbot family made it their northern home from June 1861 to November 1863. It is particularly important because WHFT conducted many of his photoglyphic engraving experiments there. The house had a rich history. Built for Sir Robert Liston (1742-1836), an 1805 design by Benjamin Latrobe for a round building was contemplated but in 1806 a small house was built to the design of William Atkinson (1773-1839), best known for Sir Walter Scott’s Abbotsford. The distinctive Gothic exterior was raised in 1815 and an additional extension built in 1821. Liston had been ambassador to the United States and maintained a warm Anglo-American relationship in the years 1796-1800. His wife, the botanist Henrietta Liston, née Marchant (1751-1828) designed a lavish American garden, sadly largely gone by the time the Talbots rented the house .