JSH has been asked by Peacock to recommend a naturalist as companion to Capt. FitzRoy on Beagle voyage. CD the best qualified person; not a finished naturalist but amply qualified for collecting, observing, and noting.
Details about FitzRoy and proposed voyage of Beagle. CD invited to go on the voyage as naturalist.
Reports on his geological work in N. Wales since he and CD parted. Answers CD’s queries.
Suggestions and information helpful to CD in preparation for Beagle voyage. David Brewster’s meteorological papers. Suggests an oyster-trawl for collecting marine animals. Recommends CD see R. E. Grant. For meteorological observations suggests F. W. Beechey’s Voyage to the Pacific [1831] and an interview with J. F. Daniell of King’s College.
Congratulates CD on Beagle appointment as an "opportunity … of studying all the natural sciences at once, after your own taste".
Is glad of CD’s appointment and hopes it will be a source of happiness and honour.
Answers a query about books.
Suggests CD go to Geological Society, present himself, as AS’s friend, to William Lonsdale and study the Society’s collection.
Tells CD of his work in Wales; includes a diagram and explanations.
Ramsay’s death a grievous loss.
Rejoices in CD’s appointment and predicts he will rank with Candolle, Henslow, and Linnaeus.
Recounts their past pleasures and gives news of friends, who are scattering fast.
Sends congratulations and good wishes; feels the Wedgwoods bear much responsibility, since he would not have accepted the Beagle appointment had he not been at Maer "that 1st. of September".
Sends him a purse, which she asks him to use in remembrance of her.
Regrets he cannot take Francis Owen on Beagle as midshipman. RF thinks CD had better be on the books [for victuals], but CD should do as he likes. Refitting progress is slow.
Much disappointed that CD will leave home before she returns.
She encloses a pin with "genuine hair" and is flattered that it will go around the world with CD.
Reports on a setter puppy born of apparently pure pointer parents. Any cross must have been far back.
Their letters crossed; she now knows he will be gone for three years, not two; does not know what they will do without him at the Forest, but wishes him well.
Gives CD directions for sending him specimens from Beagle.
Writes of Cambridge politics.
Is sending plates for R. T. Lowe’s paper [Trans. Cambridge Philos. Soc. 4 (1833): 1–70].
Adds advice on working the surd.
Agrees with CD that Beagle voyage would have been wrong for Jenyns, but assures him he (CD) is the right man. Warns CD against his "foible" of taking offence at rudeness or ungentlemanlike behaviour.
Describes the wedding of her sister Sarah and related festivities. She misses CD very much.
Family and Shropshire news.
News of family and friends, much of it about forthcoming marriages: Fanny Owen and R. M. Biddulph, Fanny Mackintosh and Hensleigh Wedgwood. Charlotte Wedgwood will write to him of her own engagement to Charles Langton.
Writes about Hensleigh Wedgwood’s marriage to Frances Mackintosh and her own engagement to Charles Langton. Also gives news of other relatives and friends.