From Thomas Belt [before 18] January 18771
Cornwall House Ealing.
January 1877
Charles Darwin Esqre | Down | Beckenham
Dear Mr Darwin,
The study of the scientific questions on which I have been for some years engaged has become so absorbing and interferes so greatly with my business pursuits that I have determined if possible to give up the latter and devote myself to the former and after considerable hesitation I have taken the step of writing to Dr Hooker to see if I can obtain assistance from the Government Grant to the Royal Society to enable me to do so.2
I now write to ask you if you can help me in this matter A note to Dr Hooker would be of great importance to me if you thought that I would return value for what I received
What I wish is to have time to put into shape and to publish the evidence on which I have arrived at the conclusions I have already partly made known on the Glacial period both in regard to surface geology and the extinction of some animals and plants and the present distribution of others3
I enclose a copy of a recent paper in the Quarterly Journal of Science4
I am Dear Sir | Yours very truly | Thomas Belt
P.S. The paper has not come in from the printer in time to post tonight. | B.
Footnotes
Bibliography
ODNB: Oxford dictionary of national biography: from the earliest times to the year 2000. (Revised edition.) Edited by H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. 60 vols. and index. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2004.
Summary
TB is seeking a Government grant through the Royal Society so that he can give up his business and pursue his work on the glacial period; wants CD to support him with a note to Hooker.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-10761
- From
- Thomas Belt
- To
- Charles Robert Darwin
- Sent from
- Ealing
- Source of text
- DAR 202: 14
- Physical description
- ALS 3pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 10761,” accessed on 19 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-10761.xml