The Courier [G. Fino] has written to Talbot saying that he is going to Nice for the winter, and therefore is no longer available. It may be possible that he is still in London at 9 Warwick St., Regent St. Talbot is currently working at the Assyrian inscriptions. He has published some remarks in the Journal of Sacred Literature of which he has enclosed two numbers, and is also working on a translation of the Bellino Cylinder, the Esarhaddon cylinder, and another cuneiform tablet. He would like to see the inscription of the Babylonian Cylinder at Trinity College Library as mentioned by Henry Rawlinson and thinks the College should publish a lithographic facsimile with a translation and notes.
Talbot is afraid that his son [Charles Henry Talbot] will not do very well in the forthcoming college examinations: 'He is often unwell, but even when well he finds himself almost incapacitated from reading. It is a thing to be pitied for it does not arise from idleness...He says, I experience a complete want of mental energy', asks Whewell to mention this to his son's tutor Mathison. Will send him some new specimens of photoglyphic engraving, given the interest the Whewell's took in the subject, and which he has now much improved.
Lacock Abbey, Chippenham - Talbot asks who to contact concerning membership to the British Association for the Advancement of Science, as the next meeting will be held near him. He is engaged in preparing a mathematical paper for the Royal Society, on the Integral Calculus, offering a solution to the problem of finding an algebraic sum of a series of integrals like ƒφ(X) αγ where φ is any function whatever of the rational polynomial X. He notes that George Jerrard has proposed a solution of algebraic equations of the 5th degree and recommends it be put to the test; and a solution in Gergonne's Annals by a Swedish officer of an equation that has no demonstration appended and therefore appears to have been ignored.
Lacock - Is not able to offer any introductions at Rome, for the only family he knows of is that of Mrs John Spedding; encloses the remarks on Assyrian inscriptions he could not find when he last wrote; has been conducting mathematical researches, thought he had found a clue to the solution of Fermat's theorem, which he discusses and which he sent on to Professor Kelland, who admired it.
Athenaeum - Invites him to Lacock Abbey, the day after Lord Lansdowne plans to introduce them at Bowood.