Royal Institution^<1>

My dear Sir

My absence from town left me in ignorance of your kind letter^<2> until now for which I have to express my great regret at the same time that I thank you sincerely for your kindness But I am cut off from
Bristol^<3> & all pleasure connected with it by illness in the knee joint which renders me very weak & lame and will I fear disable me for many months though under the hands of Sir Benj Brodie.^<4> Even at home it almost entirely prevents my working

Again thanking you for your kindness I remain

My dear Sir Your Obliged

M Faraday

H. F. Talbot Esq^r
&c &c &c

Laycock Abbey
Chippenham
Free

1. Royal Institution, London.

2. Letter not located.

3. WHFT invited a number of savants to stay at Lacock Abbey before the 1836 meeting of British Association for the Advancement of Science. Sir David Brewster (1781–1868), Scottish scientist & journalist, Professor Charles Babbage (1792–1871), mathematician & inventor, Sir Charles Wheatstone (1802–1875), scientist, Dr Peter Mark Roget (1779–1869), scientific writer, Reverend William Whewell (1794–1866), Welsh, Professor & natural philosopher and Sir William Snow Harris (1791–1867), scientist assembled at Lacock Abbey the 16th and 17th of August, leaving at various times for the meeting, which began 22 August.

4. Sir Benjamin Collins Brodie (1783–1862) surgeon.