From:
John Price
To:
Charles Robert Darwin
Date:
[July 1826]
Source of text:
DAR 204: 40
Summary:
Tells CD he is recovering from the illness with which he was afflicted when CD visited.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
Tells CD he is recovering from the illness with which he was afflicted when CD visited.
Is coming to Shrewsbury. Finds little to do but hunt rabbits. Has heard from Nathan Hubbersty and Frederick Watkins.
Describes the lectures at medical school in London.
Medical studies in London. Compares lectures and students at London and Edinburgh. Comments on the cost of dissection.
Suggestions for laboratory equipment. Will buy some mineral specimens. Describes experiments he has seen.
Account of insects he has collected, with figures drawn by sister.
Mainly concerned with entomological specimens CD has recently captured. Three figures of beetles are included.
CD on a reading party at Barmouth, Wales;
difficulty with mathematics.
Reports on his entomological collecting.
His idle life and the pleasures of Barmouth: "my reading [in mathematics] is a failure"; "Beettle hunting … is my proper sphere".
Accepts invitation to a Music Meeting at Osmaston, Derbyshire.
Entomological news and queries.
Has taken up angling.
Asks JMH to collect some insects at Barmouth.
Reports on his shooting luck.
Sends some stuffed birds for "Osmaston Museum" and some insects.
Home having cloyed, plans to go to Woodhouse to visit the Owens and the black-eyed houris [Sarah and Fanny] there.
CD obliged for JMH’s labours in "the science". He reports having spent a pleasant month. Entomological pursuits succeeded.
Looks forward to receiving beetles and butterflies from JMH when he passes through Shrewsbury.
More suggestions for the laboratory, including some experiments.
[Caroline Darwin on behalf of CD] submits a petition to Darwin family for £20 to purchase a new double-barrelled gun, CD’s present one having become dangerous.
Has met Frederick William Hope, the entomologist; relates F. W. Hope’s praise of CD’s collection and his generous offer of assistance.
Has found nice rooms in [Christ’s] College, which he has furnished with some very good prints. Lives almost entirely with W. D. Fox and entomology.
News of John Price, B. H. Kennedy, and Charles Whitley. Fanny Owen is as charming as ever.
CD is collecting entomological specimens;
extols the charms of Fanny Owen.
Entomological news, his poor success in collecting, observation of chrysalis.
Commiserates with WDF in his dismal pre-examination state.
Congratulates WDF on finishing at Cambridge; he regards his place as a very good one, and comments on how others did.
Father much pleased by gift of a swan.
Adds some entomological news.