From B. A. Irving 30 November 1881
Birthwaite House, | Windermere.
30 Nov: 1881.
My dear Sir,
If the following observation on Worms has any interest for you, I shall be amply repaid for my trouble in sending this letter. If not, pray put it in the fire, and pardon my presumption.
I have here a piece of ground, wh: has been levelled for cricket, & the sods in the main very thinly cover boulder-clay. There is little or no lime in this or the sods, and they consequently grow at this time of year very brown and “sour-looking”.
This last summer three or four Lawn Tennis Courts were marked out with whiting, and on these lines the grass is now a rich green, as it usually is after lime, & each line is thickly scored with worm-castings.
Whether they come thither, because the grass is sweeter, or for the sake of the lime, I cannot say, but the fact appears to fit in with a remark, wh: I fancy I have seen in yr: charming work on worms, that they require a certain amount of lime for the sake of digesting their food.1
I am, | My dear Sir, | Yrs: truly, | B. A. Irving.
Footnotes
Bibliography
Earthworms: The formation of vegetable mould through the action of worms: with observations on their habits. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1881.
Summary
Reports on the greener grass and the worm-castings found on the lines, which contain lime, of tennis courts.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-13523
- From
- Benjamin Atkinson Irving
- To
- Charles Robert Darwin
- Sent from
- Windermere
- Source of text
- DAR 64.2: 97–8
- Physical description
- ALS 3pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 13523,” accessed on 19 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-13523.xml