To W. B. Tegetmeier   21 [February 1859]

Down Bromley Kent

21

My dear Sir

Here is a misfortune: the silver Spangled Hamburgh Hen was seen quite well this morning & half an hour afterwards was found stone-dead on her back. If you could get me 2 or 3 more Hens, it would be very useful for my little experiment.—1 Perhaps you will have forgotten what I have: they are as follows. The Spanish Cock 2 White Games 1 White Cochin 1 Silk Fowl 1 Silver Poland

Before very long I must begin & save eggs.

I hope your Bee Soc. flourishes.2 I gave your paper to Mr Knight Bruce, (son of the Vice-Chancellor)3 & he seemed very enthusiastic & inclined to join it.—

I have been extra poorly of late & returned only on Saturday from a fortnight of Hydropathy.—4

Believe me, my dear Sir | Yours very sincerely | C. Darwin

1
See letters to W. B. Tegetmeier, 16 November [1858], 27 [November 1858], and 24 December [1858].
2
Tegetmeier was the secretary of the Apiarian Society of London (Richardson 1916, p. 47). Tegetmeier may have asked CD to be a patron of the society (see letter to W. B. Tegetmeier,2 October [1858]).
3
Louis Knight Bruce, who lived in Keston, near Down, was the son of James Lewis Knight Bruce, the lord justice and vice-chancellor from 1841. Knight Bruce was a bee-keeper and had assisted CD in his study of bees’ cells (see letters to W. B. Tegetmeier, 14 April [1858] and [21 April 1858]).
4
CD returned to Down from Moor Park hydropathic establishment on 19 February 1859 (‘Journal’; Appendix II).

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

1.1 Hamburgh] interl

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-2417,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-2417