From B. A. Irving   30 November 1881

My dear Sir,

If the following observation on Worms has any interest for you, I shall be amply repaid for my trouble in sending this letter. If not, pray put it in the fire, and pardon my presumption.

I have here a piece of ground, wh: has been levelled for cricket, & the sods in the main very thinly cover boulder-clay. There is little or no lime in this or the sods, and they consequently grow at this time of year very brown and “sour-looking”.

This last summer three or four Lawn Tennis Courts were marked out with whiting, and on these lines the grass is now a rich green, as it usually is after lime, & each line is thickly scored with worm-castings.

Whether they come thither, because the grass is sweeter, or for the sake of the lime, I cannot say, but the fact appears to fit in with a remark, wh: I fancy I have seen in yr: charming work on worms, that they require a certain amount of lime for the sake of digesting their food.¹

I am, | My dear Sir, | Yrs: truly, | B. A. Irving.