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To W. B. Tegetmeier   11 May [1856]1

Down Bromley Kent

May 11th

My dear Sir

To take your note seriatim, I am very much obliged for the authentic information in regard to the Laughing Pigeons:2 I shall be most particularly glad to have the pair you refer to at 7s.. or more if you think right.

I am almost sorry I did not get the Silk fowls for 18s. though it would have been rather extravagant as one dead Bird would have done as well for me; nevertheless I am rather sorry that I was not extravagant.—

Very many thanks for the renewed offer of the Silver-spangled Poland eggs.—

With respect to the Anerley Show,3 I have very great fears I shall not be at home, which I shall very much regret; but I am going to take my whole Family to Tenby for a month or 5 weeks,4 & I doubt whether I shall have returned.

If you really think the committee would like my name, certainly I can have no sort of objection to the compliment thus paid me.5

I suppose in such cases any sort of title is adviseable, so that you can, if you think fit, append to my name “Vice Pres: Royal Society” & F. Zoolog. Soc.y if you like.—

With many thanks for all your kindness, pray believe me | Your’s very sincerely | Ch. Darwin

PS. With respect to Steven’s sale-list if you see anything which might interest me, I shd. be very much obliged for a copy, but not otherwise.—6

Footnotes

1
Dated by the reference to the Anerley show and to CD’s proposed Tenby trip (see nn. 3 and 4, below).
3
The poultry and pigeon show held from 29 July to 1 August 1856 at Anerley Gardens, near the Crystal Palace in Sydenham, Kent. CD had attended the 1855 exhibition (see Correspondence vol. 5, letter to W. D. Fox, 31 July [1855]). The 1856 show was the last one held because it failed to meet expenses (see Secord 1981, p. 171).
4
The Darwin family did not go to Tenby because of Emma Darwin’s poor health (see letter to W. D. Fox, 8 June [1856]), so CD was able to attend the Anerley exhibition (see letter to W. B. Tegetmeier, 14 August [1856]).
5
Possibly a reference to the fact that Tegetmeier was the general manager of the poultry section for the Anerley show (Cottage Gardener 16 (1856): 339). No specific use of CD’s name has been found in reports of the Anerley show.
6
The sale catalogue of John Crace Stevens, poultry and pigeon auctioneer in Covent Garden, London.

Bibliography

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

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

Summary

Thanks WBT for help with pigeons and poultry.

Will probably be away at the time of Anerley show.

Letter details

Letter no.
DCP-LETT-1873
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 4pp †

Please cite as

Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 1873,” accessed on 26 September 2022, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-1873.xml

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

letter

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