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Letter 3355

Jenyns, Leonard to Darwin, C. R.

31 Dec 1861

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    Thanks CD for his contribution to the memoir of Henslow [L. Jenyns, Memoir of the Rev. John Stevens Henslow (1862)].

Transcription

1 Darlington Place | Bath

Dec. 31. 1861.

My dear Darwin,

I do not know that I ever thanked you for your valuable contribution to my memoir of Henslow, which I received thro' Dr Hooker some months back. I thought it a pity to insert it otherwise than entire as direct from yourself, which I accordingly did.— When however I have a proof the sheet in which it finds a place, I will take care & let you see it, according to the wish I found expressed at the end of the MS, that you may make any further corrections you desire.— I should hope this will not be long first, & unless I hear anything to the contrary, shall suppose that you are at home, & forward the proof to you the same day it gets to me, having first seen that it is correct according to what you first wrote.— If you wish to make much alteration, I should like it to be returned to me to look at,—but otherwise you may return it to the printers direct, whose address I will send with it.—

The Memoir is quite finished & out of my hands: I am afraid those friends of my lamented relative to whom it relates, & who are looking for it, will think that it has been a long time about. But like everything of the kind, when I got well into the work, one thing suggested another, & I found myself getting beyond the limits I had at first marked down. It took moreover some time looking over all his tracts & other publications, with a view to abstracting their contents. Sedgwick had promised me an analysis of his two papers on Geology of Man & Anglesea,—but alas he is too ill to do it.—

It has afforded me a sort of melancholy pleasure in undertaking the task, & I have done it as well as I can,—but with what success I must leave to others to judge.—

I cannot allow you to get this on the 1st. Jan. without wishing that the New Year may bring you & your's both health & happiness.

Believe me, | My dear Darwin, | Sincerely Your's | L. Jenyns.

    Footnotes Add

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    f1 3355.f1
    Jenyns had been preparing a memoir of his brother-in-law, John Stevens Henslow, who died on 16 May 1861. Joseph Dalton Hooker, Henslow's son-in-law, had asked CD to contribute to the volume (see letters to J. D. Hooker, 24--5 May [1861] and 30 May [1861]). CD's brief memoir was printed in Jenyns ed. 1862, pp. 51--5 (see also Collected papers 2: 72--4); the text is reprinted in Correspondence vol. 9, Appendix X.
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    f2 3355.f2
    Jenyns refers to Henslow 1821a and 1821b. Adam Sedgwick, professor of geology at the University of Cambridge, had been a colleague of Henslow's for many years.
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