[on mourning paper]

Penrice Castle
April 7 1864

My dear Henry

The very last kind of investment for surplus funds which I should desire, or recommend, is that of land, quoad investment. The return is very small, the risk of expense very great, and the troubles connected with it always recurring. There is a beautiful simplicity about 3 percent consols, and still more about railway debentures in safe lines, which throws all land speculation into shade.

I have not received your mathematical lucubrations which I regret, as I am fond of the alternative to the mind which such speculations present. Entire abstraction of thought from the realities of life, is very useful occasionally, & nothing abstracts so much as pure mathematics. How did you direct your packet?

Yours most truly
C R M Talbot

[envelope:]
W. H. Fox Talbot Esq^r
8. Rutland Square
Edinburgh