To W. B. Tegetmeier [13 September 1855]1
British Association | Glasgow
Thursday
My dear Sir
Your most kind note has been forwarded to me here, but not your pamphlet.2 which no doubt is at my house.— I made my list as short as possible not to be too unreasonable. But assuredly I shd. be very glad indeed to have any & all breeds, which you in your experience think distinct. It is a large coloured Dorking which has been promised me, & which I think from the quarter whence it comes may be trusted to be true of its kind; the gentleman (Rev W. Darwin Fox) who has promised it me, told me at the time that the White Dorking was very distinct, but I fancied, no doubt erroneously, that he referred only to colour.—3 With respect to the Polands & Hamburghs & indeed in the whole subject, I shd. be most grateful to trust to your selection.
I did not put down Rouen Ducks, from thinking that they differed only in plumage & from seeing some remark to that effect in Mr E. S. Dixon’s Book on Poultry.4 But if in figure or proportions different, I shd. be most glad to have it. So indeed with the other varieties you mention; which I omitted, as I before said, because I thought it would seem so ludicrously presumptuous to ask you or anyone to take so much trouble. I shd. be extremely glad to have everything, which seems to you tolerably distinct. Especially glad shd. I be for all good Pigeons; I feel the greatest interest about pigeons, since I have kept a few & watched their habits & ways.—5
On my return home I shall be very glad to send you my Journal.6
Really & truly your kindness, is so much more than I could have expected, that I cannot attempt to thank you, but you will, I hope, believe, that I feel very | sincerely obliged | Charles Darwin
Footnotes
Bibliography
Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.
Dixon, Edmund Saul. 1848. Ornamental and domestic poultry: their history and management. London: Office of the “Gardeners’ Chronicle”.
Tegetmeier, William Bernhard. 1854. Profitable poultry; their management in health and disease. 2d ed. London: Darton and Co.
Summary
Would welcome any distinct breed of poultry and would be glad to have any good pigeons.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-1754
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- William Bernhard Tegetmeier
- Sent from
- BAAS, Glasgow
- Source of text
- Archives of the New York Botanical Garden (Charles Finney Cox Collection)
- Physical description
- ALS 4pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 1754,” accessed on 19 March 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-1754.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 5