Sunday March 14.
My dear Henry
It is very affectionate of you to keep your intention of being here for Rosamonds <1> Birthday. – I am afraid it will occasion you an extra journey – but I suppose you don’t mind that as you are fond of changing air frequently. – Nicholl <2> suggests that, in case of your returning to Town so soon, it wd be the best plan for you to leave some of you wardrobe in the hands of the Laundress there, instead of bringing it down here.– as he can supply you here without any of the things which you have got with you there.– I long to see your portrait. <3>–
yr affectionate
Constance
H. Fox Talbot Esqre
31. Sackville StreetLondon
Notes:
1. Rosamond Constance ‘Monie’ Talbot (1837–1906), artist & WHFT’s 2nd daughter.
2. Nicolaas Henneman (1813–1898), Dutch, active in England; WHFT’s valet, then assistant; photographer.
3. Very few portraits of WHFT have survived, one of the best is a daguerreotype portrait taken by Richard Beard (1801–1885), coal merchant & daguerreotypist, London; Beard opened the first daguerreotype studio in England on the roof of the Regent Street Polytechnic in March 1841. For a reproduction of this image see H.J.P. Arnold, William Henry Fox Talbot: Pioneer of photography and man of science (London: Hutchinson Benham, 1977).
4. WHFT had published an article in the latest issue of The Literary Gazette and Journal of belles lettres, science and art. See ‘Fine Arts: Calotype (Photogenic) Drawing’, The Literary Gazette and Journal of belles lettres, science and art, no. 1258, 27 February 1841, pp. 139-140.