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The Pencil of Nature (1844-46)

by William Henry Fox Talbot

Part III (cont.): PLATE XV. LACOCK ABBEY IN WILTSHIRE.

About The Pencil of Nature
Part I.
Publisher's note, frontispiece, and title page.
Introductory Remarks.
Brief Historical Sketch of the Invention of the Art.
Plate I. Part of Queen's College, Oxford.
Plate II. View of the Boulevards at Paris.
Plate III. Articles of China.
Plate IV. Articles of Glass
Plate V. Bust of Patroclus.

Part IV.
Plate XVI. Cloisters of Lacock Abbey.
Plate XVII. Bust of Patroclus.
Plate XVIII. Gate of Christchurch
Part V.
Plate XIX. The Tower of Lacock Abbey
Plate XX. Lace
Plate XXI. The Martyr's Monument
Part VI.
Plate XXII. Westminster Abbey
Plate XXIII. Hagar in the Desert.
Plate XXIV. A Fruit Piece.


PLATE XV. LACOCK ABBEY IN WILTSHIRE.

ONE of a series of views representing the Author's country seat in Wiltshire. It is a religious structure of great antiquity, erected early in the thirteenth century, many parts of which are still remaining in excellent preservation.

This plate gives a distant view of the Abbey, which is seen reflected in the waters of the river Avon. The spectator is looking to the North West.

The tower which occupies the South-eastern corner of the building is believed to be of Queen Elizabeth's time, but the lower portion of it is much older, and coeval with the first foundation of the abbey.

In my first account of "The Art of Photogenic Drawing," read to the Royal Society in January, 1839, I mentioned this building as being the first "that was ever known to have drawn its own picture."

It was in the summer of 1835 that these curious self-representations were first obtained. Their size was very small: indeed they were but miniatures, though very distinct: and the shortest time of making them was nine or ten minutes.

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