[copy, in Phillipps's hand]
Middle Hill 30 July 1846
My dear Sir
Some time since you were so good as to give me a fac simile of a deed produced by your Photograph which was so exact that I could have almost believed it to be a real Deed – I have often reflected on the important uses to which this may be turned & among others the preservation of remarkable writing. I have a MSS of the 7th Century written in so remarkable a character that it would be well worth the trouble to make a fac simile of it by means of your discovery & I should be extremely glad if you would come here & look at it & give me your opinion of it. I have lately bought many of your published views &c by your Pencil of Nature & I begin to think it is almost useless to be at the expense of Line Engraving, when the Picture is given so exactly in two Minutes exhibition to the light.
Believe me, my dr Sir vy truly yours
TP
H. Fox Talbot Esqr
Lacock Abbey, Wilts