From Roderick Murchison 6 June 1855

Dear Henslow

In thanking you for your letter announcing your forthcoming collection, I beg to tell you that Battersea Fields have produced a wonder which ought to bring you to town by return of post.

A tree of some size, (Beech?) said to have been blasted by lightning, was cut down and sold to a wood merchant who lived at hand & who was sawing up the trunk, met with a ferruginous mass in the middle (or apparently so). This metallic mass he uncovered to the length of 10 or 12 inches & leaving the other end fast in the tree, very properly brought the whole section to us ie a transverse slice of the tree about 2 feet in diameter with the iron (having an elongated form) in the direction of the stem & sticking part in it!

On analysis the iron has already afforded both Nickel & [illeg.] the latter in greatest quantity. Part of the mass is crystaline magnetic iron - another part is strong & like a meteorite.

I have no doubt that the whole is of meteoric origin & that it was shot down into a cavity of this tree or between two branches of it.

It would appear from bark having grown around it on one side, that after the meteorite had been so lodged, the tree lived for a good many years, like a wounded soldier with a ball in him.

You who write so much botanical & mineralogical knowledge should certainly see & necessarily inspect this wonder.

Yours most sincerely

Rod. I. Murchison