York
Monday
28th July 1845
My Dear Mother
The Binder is binding three copies of No 1 for you, there are no more plates left for I made a search the other day to see if there were any more – When Nicole <1> returns to Reading I will desire him to print off more copies of the plates of No 1 <2> –
Mr Calvert Jones <3> is just arrived to unite his photographic efforts with mine – He says he had a narrow escape just on arriving at his journey’s end; the luggage on the roof of the railway carriage caught fire and immediate a gentleman exclaimed Oh! the gunpowder! for he had 4 pounds of powder in his portmanteau; fortunately they were near York and the train stopped before the fire had communicated to the fatal portmanteau.
Your affte
Henry
Direct
post office
Liverpool
Notes:
1. Nicolaas Henneman (1813–1898), Dutch, active in England; WHFT’s valet, then assistant; photographer.
2. WHFT, The Pencil of Nature (London: Longman, Brown, Green, & Longmans, June 1844–April 1846 [issued in six fascicles]).
3. Rev Calvert Richard Jones (1802–1877), Welsh painter & photographer.