To J. de C. Sowerby 11 November [1850]
Down Farnborough Kent
Nov. 11th.—
My dear Sir.
Unwellness has prevented me answering you by Return of Post.—
I like the engravings, but they certainly have, as you remark, rather a rough unfinished look.— The alterations now required are trifling, except I fear in fig. 8. (a).— I return you your drawings, as they may be useful to you, but I must see them again, when I have a corrected proof plate.
Please to observe that the Plate must be divided, by faint lines, perhaps dotted wd look best, something as I have done; I have now added the figures & letters: I presume the Plate is Nor. II.— Please carefully preserve this rough proof to be sent to me with the final proof.—
The woodcuts will do; but I want the lower part of the one returned to be cut off, as I have done but the shading must be a little fined off;, to put the type closer to the basal valves.—
Do, I earnestly beg you make rapid progress; since I wrote last, I have had a letter from Mr Fitch & he tells me he shall in a short time demand back his specimens; I suppose I have written him half-a-dozen letters of apology.—
Please to observe that I promised Mr. Fitch & others that I would take especial care of their specimens; & therefore I must desire you not to send any more specimens in parcels to me; but whenever you can tell me, that all the other Plates, (except that of Loricula, which can come last & afterwards) are ready I will at once send my servant in the tax-cart1 to your house for the Proofs & all the specimens; I will then carefully compare them here, & bring or send up the Proofs to you again.
I am sorry to give you the trouble of writing, but I must beg you to send me one line to say whether you have returned the Loricula to Mr Wetherell;2 & 2d. whether you received some six weeks ago a single minute valve—(in letter Registered) of Pollicipes gracilis, for an inside View on wood, if you could not get in a Plate.3 3d Can you not give me some rough notion when the other Plates will be done, to know it will be great assistance to me: do try & make up for the delay & annoyment I have suffered.
Your’s sincerely | C. Darwin
Footnotes
Bibliography
Fossil Cirripedia (1851): A monograph on the fossil Lepadidæ, or, pedunculated cirripedes of Great Britain. By Charles Darwin. London: Palaeontographical Society. 1851.
OED: The Oxford English dictionary. Being a corrected re-issue with an introduction, supplement and bibliography of a new English dictionary. Edited by James A. H. Murray, et al. 12 vols. and supplement. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1970. A supplement to the Oxford English dictionary. 4 vols. Edited by R. W. Burchfield. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1972–86. The Oxford English dictionary. 2d edition. 20 vols. Prepared by J. A. Simpson and E. S. C. Weiner. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1989. Oxford English dictionary additional series. 3 vols. Edited by John Simpson et al. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1993–7.
Summary
CD likes the engravings [for Fossil Cirripedia (Lepadidae)] but is distressed by JdeCS’s slow progress and is being pressed by owners to return their specimens.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-1368
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- James de Carle Sowerby
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.)
- Physical description
- ALS 4pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 1368,” accessed on 18 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-1368.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 4