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Henry Fox Talbot 
Lacock Abbey in Wiltshire 
[The Pencil of Nature, Part 3, pl. 15] 
1844 (published) 
  
Calotype 
Hans P. Kraus, Jr., Inc. 
Taken from the reproductions in Larry J. Schaaf, H. Fox Talbot's The Pencil of Nature; Anniversary Facsimile (New York: Hans P. Kraus, Jr. Inc., 1989). The originals selected for this publication were the best single examples available for each plate. Not to be reproduced without permission of H.P. Kraus, Jr. 
  
 
LL/18332 
  
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 comer 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 yet 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.
 
H. Fox Talbot, The Pencil of Nature, (London: Longman, Brown, Green and Longmans, 1844) 
 

 
  
 
  
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