From H. W. Bates 20 April 1863
22 Harmood Street | Haverstock hill N.W
April 20 1863
My Dear Mr Darwin
I have at length returned from Leicester & the above will be now my address for a long time.1 Your last note to me at Leicester stated you had just received my book & were commencing to read.2 I hope now you have finished & are ready to pronounce sentence.3 With regard to the other matter you mention, namely my prospects;4 I must be open with you as I have been heretofore. My total income is £123 £100 of which is allowed to me by my brothers on account of my withdrawing from their small business (which was not large enough to support 3 of us) & leaving £1000 of my capital on loan, the other £23 is interest on shares.5
Now I hope to add by scientific or literary work sufficient to enable me to live modestly. I should consider myself well off if I could gain an additional £150.
There is perhaps some slight chance of my getting in at British Museum which of course would fix me for life.6 I can get plenty of Entomological work from private persons but it is of a tedious, mechanical nature & would prevent me from undertaking original researches.7
The house I have taken is a very small one, but retired & semi-rural Mrs B. is a plain domesticated woman so there you have it all.8
One of my reviewers “hopes that I have made my expedition answer in a pecuniary point of view”9 It certainly did not answer for the total savings of my 11 years work did not exceed £800
Yours sincerely | H W Bates
I go to Murray today to ascertain the trade result of my book10
Footnotes
Bibliography
Bates, Henry Walter. 1863. The naturalist on the River Amazons. A record of adventures, habits of animals, sketches of Brazilian and Indian life, and aspects of nature under the equator, during eleven years of travel. 2 vols. London: John Murray.
Bates, Henry Walter. 1892. The naturalist on the River Amazons. A record of adventures, habits of animals, sketches of Brazilian and Indian life, and aspects of nature under the equator, during eleven years of travel. With a memoir of the author by Edward Clodd. Reprint of the first edition. London: John Murray.
Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.
Woodcock, George. 1969. Henry Walter Bates, naturalist of the Amazons. London: Faber & Faber.
Summary
Expresses hope that CD is ready to pronounce sentence on his book;
he relates his financial position and mentions that he hopes to get a position at the British Museum.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-4116
- From
- Henry Walter Bates
- To
- Charles Robert Darwin
- Sent from
- Haverstock Hill
- Source of text
- DAR 160: 75
- Physical description
- ALS 4pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 4116,” accessed on 24 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-4116.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 11