On this day (May 25) in the year 1841, Maria Edgeworth took pen in hand 
and wrote the following letter describing her visit to the newly opened 
studio of Richard Beard.
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To Fanny Wilson
                    11 Gloucester Place, Tuesday, 25 May 1841

  . . .Lestock came with me to breakfast here at 8 oclock and then he 
took Honora and Captain Beaufort and me to the Polytechnic and we all 
had our likenesses taken and I will tell you no more lest I should some 
way or other cause you disappointment. For my own part my object is 
secure for I have done my dear what you wished. It is a wonderful 
mysterious operation. You are taken from one room into another up 
stairs and down and you see various people whispering and hear them in 
neighboring passages and rooms unseen and the whole apparatus and stool 
on high platform under a glass dome casing a snap-dragon blue light 
making all look like spectres and the men in black gliding about like 
&c.  I have not time to tell you more of that. . .


Cited from, Colvin, Christina edit. "Maria Edgeworth: Letters from 
England 1813-1844" (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1971) 593-4
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Posted for your enjoyment     Gary W. Ewer     
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05-25-98