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Darwin Correspondence Project

To William Bernhard Tegetmeier   1 January [1856]1

Down Bromley Kent

Jan 1st

My dear Sir

I write one line to thank you very sincerely for the card for the Philo-peristeron;2 which I will certainly attend if I possibly can: if I do not come, I will send the cranium per post;3 but I hope that I shall be able.— I am sorry to hear that you have been harassed in what seems a most just cause.

Your’s sincerely | C. Darwin

Very many & sincere thanks for keeping me in mind about Pigeons.

Footnotes

Dated by CD’s attendance at the annual show of the Philoperisteron Society (see n. 2, below).
Tegetmeier was secretary of the Philoperisteron Society, a club of gentlemen pigeon-fanciers that met in the Freemason’s Tavern, London. See Secord 1981, p. 172, and E. W. Richardson 1916, pp. 100–2. CD attended the meeting of 8 January (Cottage Gardener, 15 (1855–6): 301), and became a member of the society on 14 October 1856 (Secord 1981, p. 176).
Probably the head of the jungle fowl from India that CD had offered to lend Tegetmeier (see Correspondence vol. 5, letter to W. B. Tegetmeier, 6 December [1855]).

Bibliography

Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.

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

Secord, James Andrew. 1981. Nature’s fancy: Charles Darwin and the breeding of pigeons. Isis 72: 162–86.

Summary

Will attend the Philoperisteron [pigeon fanciers’ club] if he possibly can.

Letter details

Letter no.
DCP-LETT-1813
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 1p

Please cite as

Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 1813,” accessed on 20 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-1813.xml

Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 6

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