Liverpool
Sunday 3d August 1845
My Dear Mother
The bad weather has prevented me from making any views; except at York. Mr C. Jones <1> assisted me for one day, & was then summoned away to Swansea by the illness of a relation. Had he been able to remain however the extreme wetness of the weather would have prevented our doing anything memorable.
He wants to go to Venice and make pictures there: if any spirited publisher would defray the expense of the journey. <2>
I have visited Durham & Richmond. A distant view of Aske Hall, Ld Zetland’s seat, <3> struck me very much - it is far grander than my recollection - I mean the scenery and situation. To be sure I saw it before, I think in November.
I went to see two unfashionable spas or watering places on the river Tees, Croft & Dinsdale - There are pleasant walks there.
Yesterday I came through the great manufacturing district of the West Riding of Yorkshire by Wakefield Huddersfield Halifax Todmorden Rochdale Middleton & Manchester. a boldly constructed railway passes thro’ this district, which is a succession of mountain valleys of much natural beauty. At Middleton I looked out for Hopwood Hall<4> without seeing anything which answered to my notion of it.
Yours affly
Henry
Notes:
1. Rev Calvert Richard Jones (1802–1877), Welsh painter & photographer.
2. Jones had already taken daguerreotypes in Venice. In 1841, he wrote to Talbot that using the paper process would save him much weight. [See Doc. No: 04264]. Finding a way to pay for his travels was a pressing concern to Jones at this time. Talbot attempted to draw him into a business arrangement; the death of Jones’ father and a subsequent inheritance made this unnecessary from Jones’ point of view.
3. Aske Hall, North Yorkshire, the family seat of Laurence Dundas, Thomas Dundas, 2nd Earl of Zetland (1795–1873). [See Doc. No: 02774].
4. From June 1828 - September 1831, Amélina Petit De Billier (1798-1876), governess and later a close friend to the Talbot family, was a companion to the family of Robert Gregge-Hopwood (1773-1854) and the Hon. Cecelia, née Byng, daughter of John Byng, 5th Viscount Torrington, at their home of Hopwood Hall, between Middleton and Rochdale, Lancaster.