To Adam Sedgwick 27 December 1858

My Dear Sedgwick

I am to blame & not Annie for neglect in letting you know of the safe arrival of your second kind present. The fact is we have no means of sending to Bury except on Wednesdays & when the carrier enquired for the hamper it had not arrived - & did not till after he had left. So we had to wait another week, & I told Anne I would write when it had turned up at Bury & the bottles were safe in the cellar. You know how occupied minds are apt to forget even such bounden duties as acknowledging presents & will not wonder that altho' it crossed my mind several times to write the occasions were inconvenient & procrastination prevailed. I dare say you will forgive me. Many thanks for attending to Anny's wants & I assure you finds benefit from the physic - which is retained exclusively for her use. I am grieved to hear how weak your digestion must be & the ill consequences that ensue. I find I can't get thro' so much sedentary work as I used to do without dispeptic attacks - but when I take a proper amount of exercise & recreation I can still digest any thing & everything. But I am foolish in often sitting up too late & walking too little - & then my nervous system sets awry & gets my digestive secretions out of order - but I must not grumble at what is so purely my own fault. I find the new arrangements will give me 7 weeks instead of 5 for lectures which I am glad of, as I shall be less hurried & have alternate days for extra work. John Brown of Stanway lately sent me some decomposing vegetable matter from a bed 50 feet below clay which is either Till, (I suppose) more probably re-drifted Till. In this bed he finds remains of Elephant and Rinoceros (near Colchester). He begged me to look at it as he fancied he had found seeds. I examined a piece 1/2 the size of my thumb & picked out about 100 seed vessels & seeds with little bits of beetles & leaves of moss. Some of the seed vessels are very perfect, others much decomposed, but clearly seed vessels, their stalks attached. It takes me too much time to persue the plan I adopted for separating these fruits- I spent six hours over the essay. But when Miss Doorne returns to Hitcham after the holidays I shall set her to work & in a few days I dare say she will separate a few hundred. I have taught her to dissect minute fruits & seeds, & she is preparing such matter for sale, as she has to seek her own livelihood. She does enough (I think) to secure about 3/- for a days work. If you like to venture such a sum for what she can secure from a mass of the Pleistocene peat I'll give her the job as I shall have to give her one for Mr Brown. Nearly or quite one half the mass seems to be small seed vessels - apparently of Juncus, Veronica, perhaps Rumex & other marshy plants. By securing a great many specimens I dare say several forms will be ascertainable. If ever you want minute objects neatly stuck down the aforesaid Miss D. will do it very reasonably to her heart's content.

Yrs affecly

J .S. Henslow