To J. C. Dale 30 December 1824

My dear Dale,

If my opportunities for entomological pursuits have been curtailed, I can assure you that my favour towards the science is in no way abated. It therefore gives me great pleasure to find that you intend adding to our Cambridge collection & I can assure you, your present will be duly estimated whenever it arrives. My time is certainly pretty well occupied at present & I can only hope for leisure to attend to the arrangement of the Socy's collection during the long vacation. Pupils, sermons, stones, wife are all added to my lot since we used to talk about Papilio, Sphinx, Carabus &c. My brother in law L. Jenyns is still working hard & we hope in a few years to have ascertained a sufficient no. of Cambridge animals & vegetables to publish a natural history of the county. You are indeed a most indefatigable man & the long list of names with whom you correspond & to whom you send specimens is truly awful(!!!). Bulwer I believe to be in Ireland. He promised to send me a large box of shells about a year & a half ago but has not. I hope your report of Leach is correct & that he may again be restored to his friends and the world, but I sadly fear he will never recover sufficiently to enable him to pursue his old employment with any degree of labor. L. Jenyns & I went to to Gamlingay in August to look for Daplidia & Lithonia in hopes of a 2d brood - but alas we returned empty hand - but have vowed to return again next season. We have got a Stylops

Yrs with great affection

J. S. Henslow

[Overleaf list by J.C. Dale of species for Cambridge]