Lacock Abbey
Tuesday 17th May
My dear Father,
Today is as hot as ever again. It is uncomfortably hot, and so much so that I feel almost to [sic] lazy to do much photography. Altogether I have taken 2 views of. One of the hall steps & one of the cloisters, and prepared two Tannin plates which will be much pleasanter to work with as they give one much less running about in the sun. W I do not know where the glebe land attached to the vicarage is. I wish I had the map of the cotale here for I want to study it. We had our first go practising of cricket last night which was pretty successful for the 1st night & today I am so stiff with bowling that I feel as if I couldn’t bend. I have to thank you for the Courant received this morning. My books are so numerous that I cant find room for them all & so have left some up in the box as yet. there is only room in some of the South gallery shelves which look like vacancies which will be filled up again. If I had a cooler day I think I should get on faster with my Tannin plates. When the weather is so very hot one feels unable almost to do anything. Heaps of things occur to me as desirable subjects to be photographed about the house. My idea is to photograph them print a transparency on glass and then engrave them that they may be permanently recorded. For instance there is an old box remaining in the tool house in the garden which though certainly very [illegible deletion] shabby, is very curious. having a remarkable pattern with Fantastic animals in it, and at any rate it would be desirable to have a record of it and who can tell what people in future ages will do to the abbey. So I think all the nooks & corners ought to be engraved. I notice a white clematis coming into flower in the courtyard. You never take any notice of the names of the churches in France which you engrave whi. I should like to know what church in France it is which you engraved the other day. Is it Dr John Brown who wrote “ Bal & his friends <1>” that you are going to engrave? [Clive?] seems to keep up his reputation. The first time he attracted notice was when he was in a low form the 2nd or 1st shell I think when he got our Botfield medal for modern Languages to the astonishment of everybody. There are several large fish in the Caldron <2> pond. I don’t know what they are perhaps they are tench and I noticed a very small pike besides lots of small fish, roach probably. The wire fencing is being put up fast. The shed seems to be about finished. I should It is built close up to certain trees. I should have been for cutting these trees down in preference for they are so close that the trees whe in growing will push the woodwork of the shed to pieces. t The horsechesnuts are particularly pretty, and the horsechesnut must be a useful tree for an immense quantity of bees, are to be seen upon it.
Your affect son
Charles
[envelope:]
H Fox Talbot Esq
13 Gt Stuart St
Edinburgh
Notes:
1. Possibly Dr John Hutton Balfour (1808–1884), Scottish botanist. [See Doc. No: 08716].
2. See Doc. No: 08324.