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Darwin Correspondence Project

To W. B. Tegetmeier   21 [February 1859]

Down Bromley Kent

21

My dear Sir

Here is a misfortune: the silver Spangled Hamburgh Hen was seen quite well this morning & half an hour afterwards was found stone-dead on her back. If you could get me 2 or 3 more Hens, it would be very useful for my little experiment.—1 Perhaps you will have forgotten what I have: they are as follows. The Spanish Cock 2 White Games 1 White Cochin 1 Silk Fowl 1 Silver Poland

Before very long I must begin & save eggs.

I hope your Bee Soc. flourishes.2 I gave your paper to Mr Knight Bruce, (son of the Vice-Chancellor)3 & he seemed very enthusiastic & inclined to join it.—

I have been extra poorly of late & returned only on Saturday from a fortnight of Hydropathy.—4

Believe me, my dear Sir | Yours very sincerely | C. Darwin

Footnotes

See letters to W. B. Tegetmeier, 16 November [1858], 27 [November 1858], and 24 December [1858].
Tegetmeier was the secretary of the Apiarian Society of London (Richardson 1916, p. 47). Tegetmeier may have asked CD to be a patron of the society (see letter to W. B. Tegetmeier,2 October [1858]).
Louis Knight Bruce, who lived in Keston, near Down, was the son of James Lewis Knight Bruce, the lord justice and vice-chancellor from 1841. Knight Bruce was a bee-keeper and had assisted CD in his study of bees’ cells (see letters to W. B. Tegetmeier, 14 April [1858] and [21 April 1858]).
CD returned to Down from Moor Park hydropathic establishment on 19 February 1859 (‘Journal’; Appendix II).

Bibliography

Richardson, Edmund William. 1916. A veteran naturalist; being the life and work of W. B. Tegetmeier. London: Witherby & Co.

Summary

Sends list of poultry breeds he would like.

Letter details

Letter no.
DCP-LETT-2417
From
Charles Robert Darwin
To
William Bernhard Tegetmeier
Sent from
Down
Source of text
Archives of the New York Botanical Garden (Charles Finney Cox Collection)
Physical description
ALS 3pp

Please cite as

Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 2417,” accessed on 28 March 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-2417.xml

Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 7

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