A ball and two concerts at Shrewsbury; guests at the Darwins’: Mr and Mrs Mathew, three Mr Clives, Emma Wedgwood.
Showing 1–20 of 20 items
A ball and two concerts at Shrewsbury; guests at the Darwins’: Mr and Mrs Mathew, three Mr Clives, Emma Wedgwood.
CD comments on lectures and lecturers at Edinburgh.
Family news. Visits to the Owens at Woodhouse and the Parkers at Overton.
Sends thanks to all for their letters.
News of dining and theatre at Edinburgh.
CD will learn to stuff birds from "a blackamoor".
Comments on use of muriate of lime on plants. Also on existence of unexplained bands on film and on presence of red light beyond normal spectrum with light originating from certain sources.
Responds to receipt of sample impression of GP's memoir [see GP's 1825-12-3]. Comments on printing and paying arrangements, and to whom copies are to be sent. Comments on value of using an equatorial telescope as opposed to a meridian circle. [Some parts of the letter are illegible.]
Writes to correct error JH identified in GP's memoir [see GP's 1826-1-18]. Also asks to have two additional passages added to improve memoir. Intends to come to England next winter. Is including a list of corrections for the memoir [list is missing].
Thanks HO for JH's election to the Royal Academy of Copenhagen. Comments on some chemical and magnetical experiments.
Asks JH about Dr. Balfour's account in Asiatic Researches about lunar effects on humans in India.
Questions and comments regarding improvements in microscopy.
Comments on several experiments with spectra passing through glass films.
Is making arrangements to meet with TH in London.
Thanks JH and Charles Babbage for their paper on the magnetic experiments. Asks to have 20 extra copies of the paper on the rocket experiments made when it is printed. Speaks of travel expenses. Mentions [T. F.] Colby's opinions regarding the Spitzbergen measurements.
Errors in equinoctial time calculated by John Pond. Suggests limiting decimal places in value of equinoctial time to reflect this uncertainty. Making error uniform will make it awkward to alter future almanacs.
Resolved puzzle about sidereal year, which needs better definition. Error between true and nominal positions prevents TY adopting 'equinoctial time' for chronology investigations.
Encloses an outline of JH's paper on iron [? 'On the Separation of Iron from Other Metals,' RSPT (1821), 293-9].
Thanks for turkey. Turns down offered potential post [of vice-president] in favour of [Robert] Brown. Heard from [Alexander] Macleay at Rio de Janeiro, assumes they have reached New South Wales by now. Hopes Smith's niece is bearing her misfortune well. Account of recent Linnean Society meeting. Their bank quiet but fears great distress across the country and expects to hear of banks failing.
[Letter incomplete: large portion of second folio cropped, unclear if any significant text missing]
Indebted to Smith's publications for the progress he has made in botany; offers to send 'Lichen' specimens not in "English botany" for Smith's opinion at later date, and now sends others, including: 'Parmelia conoplea', 'P. subiginosa', 'P. plumbra', 'P. ambigua', 'P. farrea'; observations. He and Mr Knight found 'Targionia hypophylla' last summer in Radnorshire, also found in Montgomeryshire.
Requests that Smith mark the specimens he has sent in a particular way. Remarks on habitats of 'Parmelia scrobiculata', 'P. aquila', and 'P. perforata'.
Thanks for turkey and specimens of 'Dianthus'. [Samuel Goodenough] ill. Fonthill Abbey and grounds purchased by [John] Benett [(1773-1852), his brother-in-law], the walks and drives to kept in good order. The abbey itself is in ruins, mentions the tower falling with a "tremendous crash" and the previous owner, [John] Farquhar [(1751-1826)], having a narrow escape. Acquired work on Brazilian ferns.
Offers to obtain any or all of the Hungarian plants described by [Franz Adam von] Waldstein and [Paul] Kitaibel in ["Descriptiones et icones plantarum rariorum Hungariae"] from a Munich botanist, in exchange for British specimens.
[Note, possibly in Smith's hand] "of Laycock Abbey, Nephew of Ld Lansdown".