Text Online
From:
Richard Phillips
To:
Michael Faraday
Date:
4 September 1821
Source of text:
RI MS F1 I042
Summary:
No summary available.
Contributor:
Faraday Project
No summary available.
No summary available.
[This letter appears to be a later copy and is not in Smith's hand]
Thanks for mention of him and his "Grammar of Botany" in last "[Gentleman's] Magazine". Approves of the 20 copies of "A selection of the correspondence of Linnaeus" alloted to him. Requests a set of the autographs. "Poor Mr Stevenson's treasures are preparing for sale by auction".
Twenty-fourth volume of transactions of the Academia Reale delle Scienze di Torino [Royal Academy of Sciences Turin], of which he is the secretary, is to be sent to Smith. The complete collection of transactions of the Academy was dispatched to [Alexander] Macleay earlier in the year. Reminds Smith of the exchange of publications between Turin Academy and Linnean Society agreed with Professor [Franco Andrea] Bonelli [(1784-1830), Italian zoologist] when he was assisting with Linnean Society meetings in November 1819.
On verso of second folio Smith has noted: "sent to the Acad. my Compend[iu]m [florae Britannicae] ed. 3d & Linn[aeus'] Orb[is] er[uditi] Judic[ium] [and] Obs[ervationes] in Regn[um] Lap[ideum]".
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No summary available.
Looks forward to JH's return. Visited [E. P. T.] Babbage and Mrs. Beckwith in London.
Describes Como [Lombardy]. Visit with Pietro Configliachi [professor of physics at University of Pavia]. Crossing of alpine passes and Lake Maggiore. Ascent of Monte Rosa. JH was first Englishman to reach summit. [Letter continued 17 Sept. in Berne:] News from Slough of death of JH's uncle [Alexander Herschel]. Expects to return home in three weeks.
No summary available.
Thanks for copy of Smith's "Grammar of Botany". Her sisters have been "cultivating the taste" Smith's Birmingham lectures have excited. Asks after Smith's "English flora". Comments on large rainfall in Lancashire. Hopes Smith will visit Warwickshire soon.
No summary available.
Asks PC for barometer readings for specific days in September, as JH was at the summit of Mount Rosa with a barometer. JH would also appreciate any other barometer readings around the foot of the mountain for those days. JH is on his way back to England.
Suspects [Aylmer Bourke] Lambert of dissimulation over the account he gave Smith of the Australian specimens received and in Lambert's care; more were in flower than stated, has set some aside for Smith. Received many Australian bulbs via his gardener in London; shall send Smith seed of 'Silene'. Anticipates Smith's intended visit next summer; will keep duplicates of Australian shells for Lady [Pleasance] Smith. Received 'Butonuis' from [Alexander] Macleay; requests cuttings of rarer willows. Pleased with his improvements at Nabotts, intends it to be a repository for bog and aquatic plants.
[Letter incomplete: two-thirds of second folio cropped, unclear if any text other than valediction and signature lost]
No summary available.
Numerous accidents and illnesses having befallen his servants, including typhus fever, has thrown his household into confusion. Received a pot of 'Gloxinia speciosa' from Lady [Anne] Melville [(d 1841), wife of Robert Dundas, 2nd Viscount Melville]; at first sight the flower is similar to 'Digitalis'. Experienced a very favourable summer but their "greedy" farmers have been working on Sundays as if it were a perilous time. Goodenough reports that on the death of the Queen [Caroline (1768-1821), wife of George IV, died 7 August 1821] some initially put on deep mourning but stopped after finding the many did not; believes the Queen's trial was just used for party politics. Visited by family of the wife of his son, Edmund [the Cockerells]. Goodenough thinks the King [George IV (1762-1830)] is "enjoying himself finely" and that "the Irish were half out of their wits" [the King paid a state visit to Ireland in 1821]. Does not agree with the treatment prescribed for his granddaughter's bad back.