To W. B. Tegetmeier 14 March [1865]1
Down. | Bromley. | Kent. S.E.
Mar 14.
My dear Sir
I am much obliged for your note & the feathers.2 You must not on any account fatigue your eyes with the M.S.3 I quite agree that you ought to send a short report to the Royal Soc. I am not surprized at the results.4
I do not like to trouble you but I should like to hear the date of the 1st No. of the Field containing the Articles on the Pigeon that I might order them.5
I have been much interested by yr article on the Carrier; & the wood cut seems to me quite excellent.6
In my book I shall have two Chapters on Pigeons like that on Fowls, & I shd like to illustrate the former with about 6 woodcuts as large as a page;7 I had intended applying to Harrison Weir but if Mr Wells knows other fancy pigeons well, I think I cd not do better than to employ him.8
I was thinking that it wd be desirable to have cuts of the head alone (of almost full size) of the Spanish, Polish, & Hamburg breeds of Fowls.—9
In the course of a month or two when your eye sight will be better I hope you will allow me to consult you on this subject.
I thought of H. Weir because I thought I cd trust him as a known fancier to make me drawings of highly developed birds not caricatured.10
Believe me my dear Sir | yours very sincerely | Charles Darwin
P.S. Would it be worth your while (I am sure that you know that I intend nothing disrespectful to you) to aid me for a fee of two guineas in making terms with Mr Weir or Mr Wells for the desired woodcuts of 6 or 7 pigeons & of the Heads of 3 or 4 Cocks & seeing to drawings before they are cut when on wood, that they are satisfactory & seeing proofs of the cuts.11 So that I might have your guarantee that they were faithfully executed. That would not give you a great deal of trouble, though it would be considerable.— I have so little strength that I am very anxious to economise work. I shd like good cuts of Pouter Carrier, Barb— Short-faced Almond Tumbler & according to cost also of Fantail, Jacobin & Turbit.12
Footnotes
Bibliography
Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.
DNB: Dictionary of national biography. Edited by Leslie Stephen and Sidney Lee. 63 vols. and 2 supplements (6 vols.). London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1912. Dictionary of national biography 1912–90. Edited by H. W. C. Davis et al. 9 vols. London: Oxford University Press. 1927–96.
Marginalia: Charles Darwin’s marginalia. Edited by Mario A. Di Gregorio with the assistance of Nicholas W. Gill. Vol. 1. New York and London: Garland Publishing. 1990.
Secord, James Andrew. 1981. Nature’s fancy: Charles Darwin and the breeding of pigeons. Isis 72: 162–86.
Variation: The variation of animals and plants under domestication. By Charles Darwin. 2 vols. London: John Murray. 1868.
Summary
Asks for WBT’s help in arranging for woodcuts to illustrate pigeon chapters of Variation.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-4786
- 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
- LS(A) 6pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 4786,” accessed on 20 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-4786.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 13