To Leonard Jenyns 21 [January 1847]
Down Farnborough | Kent
21st
Dear Jenyns
I am very much obliged for the capital little almanack;1 it so happened that I was wishing for one to keep in my portfolio. I had never seen this kind before & shall certainly get one pro futuro. I think it is very amusing to have a list before one’s eyes, of the order of appearance of the plants & animals around one: it gives a fresh interest to each fine day.—2 There is one point, I shd like to see a little improved, viz the correction for the clock at shorter intervals: most people, I suspect, who like myself, have dials, will wish to be more precise,, than with a margin of three minutes. I always buy a 1s almanack for this sole end.—3
By the way your ie. V. Vorst4 almanack’s is very dear; it ought, at least, to be advertised post-free for the 1s.— Do you not think a table, (not rules) of conversion of French into English measures & perhaps weights wd. be exceedingly useful.—also centi-grade into Fahr.—magnifying powers according to focal distances— in fact you might make it the most useful publication of the age.—
I know what I shd like best of all, namely current metereolog. remarks for each month, with statement of average course of winds & prediction of weather in accordance with movements of the Barometer. People, I think, are always amused at knowing the extremes & means of temp. for corresponding times in other years.—
I hope you will go on with it another year.—
With many thanks, my dear Jenyns. | Yours very truly | C. Darwin
Footnotes
Bibliography
LL: The life and letters of Charles Darwin, including an autobiographical chapter. Edited by Francis Darwin. 3 vols. London: John Murray. 1887–8.
Summary
Acknowledges receipt of [The naturalist’s pocket] almanack edited by LJ. Suggests some improvements.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-1055
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Leonard Jenyns/Leonard Blomefield
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution
- Physical description
- ALS 4pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 1055,” accessed on 13 September 2023, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-1055.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 4