Sloperton. <1>
August 10 9th
1844
My dear Talbot–
You have hit upon the very thing – at least as far as I am concerned. New things (at least professing to be new) are sure to be carped at, and this it was – the fear and consciousness of this – that paralyzed every effort I made to do something for you. But this new suggestion of yours removes every difficulty and I shall now have all the honour and glory of being solarized in your company without being at the same time criticised for my “parts of speech.”<2>
Let me know if it is any particular kind of paper I must (certainly not the kind I am writing on now) that I must transcribe the two Melodies upon.
Yrs ever
T.M.
It was by a casualty I was prevented from answering you yesterday
Notes:
1. Sloperton Cottage, Wiltshire, 1 mi E of Lacock: home of Thomas Moore, the Irish poet.
2. Moore had been interested in WHFT's photogenic drawings from the beginning: on 15 May 1839, he wrote to Lady Elisabeth Feilding, "I sat down to write you the other day, while we were at Lacock ... [we] ... enjoyed ourselves very much, for both Talbot and his collaboratuer, the Sun, were in high force & splendour, and only I promised to write something about their joint doings, if I could get paper sensitive enough for the purpose." (Fox Talbot Collection, The British Library, LA39-37). WHFT had requested Moore to write out his poetry so that it could be copied by photography, presumably for inclusion in facsimile in a future number of The Pencil of Nature. On 4 September 1844 Moore began his attempts with "Dear Harp of My Country" - there is an ink manuscript document in his hand dated that day in the Fox Talbot Collection, The British Library, that was used by WHFT to make several contact negatives; it is horizontal in format and Moore also made at least one vertical attempt (now missing). Four of these negatives are in the Talbot Collection of the National Media Museum, Bradford: 1937-2448, Schaaf 625; 1937-2450, Schaaf 626; 1937-2451, Schaaf 627; and a variation in a vertical format, 1937-2452, Schaaf 628. Another is in the British Library Fox Talbot Collection, Acc. no. 228, Schaaf 755. Several prints from these are in various collections.