To William Stevenson Fitch 21 December 1853

My dear Sir,

I left home on Monday for a little holiday, & feel much benefited already by the relaxations of mind, & the opinion of a London Physician, that my attack has been neuralgic & not referable to organic derangement. I did not write to you before leaving as I thought from what you said, it was just possible some fossils might arrive during the past week, & I would do so then. But, assured of your kind intentions, I can wait till it shall suit your perfect convenience to forward them.

I shall return home on Friday, & trust I shall find myself well enough to revisit Ipswich on Tuesday week. So far as their precise localities may be known I shall be glad of them; but any Crag fossils (even without much information) will be acceptable - Suffolk being nearly the only locality for these things, they are sometimes asked for (as in the case of Manchester & now also Plymouth) when fresh Museums rise; & this enables us to assist & be assisted accordingly.

Believe me

very truly yrs

J. S. Henslow

[Transcription by permission of the Master and Fellows of St John's College, Cambridge]