From Leonard Horner   3 December 1855

17. Queen’s Road West | Regent’s Park

3 December 1855

My Dear Henslow,

I am glad that we have a prospect of seeing you soon, and I hope that you will not be unwilling to occupy our Bachelor’s bed [underlined & starred by JSH], as our larger room will be occupied for some time by my sister M rs Pouer from Paris. Give me as long notice as you can, that I may have a better chance of finding disengaged some of those you would like to see. It is very kind of you to say that you will visit our Highgate School, & the promise has given much pleasure to my daughter Susan, to whose energy that school owes its existence. I shall be glad to hear more in detail how you are coming on with all your benevolent & enlightened plans of civilization. I am placed in the unenviable position of seeing a vast extent of barbarism without the means of breaking up the waste, & bringing up the good soil which I know to exist. I was only within these few days costing up the number of children between 8 & 12 years of age employed in the factories in my district who are recognized to attend a school, for three hours on five days of every week, and they amount to 21,500. If there were good schools within their reach, what a vast amount of good might be done; but I am satisfied that not more than a fifth of them get any really useful & valuable instruction. The want of good schools is the more to be deplored when I see not only what can be made of these “half-timers”, under a really efficient Master, but how willing [the:JSH] parents are to send their children when they find that they are well taught.

I do not believe that it is worth while to make any further inquiry about the human jaw; had such a thing been found in any position that appeared remarkable to the half informed, it would have been known to some members of your Ipswich Museum—But I shall inform my friend of the result of your inquiry—

Our kind regards to all at the Rectory.

Faithfully yours | Leonard Horner

Please cite as “HENSLOW-422,” in Ɛpsilon: The Correspondence of John Stevens Henslow accessed on 28 March 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/henslow/letters/letters_422