Letter from John Curtis to Alexander Henry Haliday 19 December 1830
Letter from John Curtis to Alexander Henry Haliday 19 December 1830
My Dear Sir, It gave me great pleasure to recieve a letter from you, for I assure you that we were surprised at not having any tidings of you in town this autumn, and I began to fear that you might have been in Paris or Brussels during the disturbances [1] which have visited those cities. Your letter arrived most apropos for I was on the point of joining my friend Walker[2] in Bedford Square [3] to spend a few days with him at Southgate when it came, he desires to be kindly remembered to you. I absolutely spent two days in looking over his collections which with French and extra - European insects is becoming very interesting. For my own part I want the days to be doubled and my own life to equal that of the Patriarch [4]to get through with my numerous engagements, for my correspondents are daily increasing and I fear from their not knowing what it is to be engaged in a Periodical Work [5] that they feel themselves neglected. I hope however that as soon as I can get the Guide [6] off my hands that I shall have a little more leisure; I have published only one sheet since I saw you which I now enclose and hope it may be interesting to you. You probably may have seen that I have completed my 7th volume which contains several of Latreille's [7] Hymenopterous Genera which I trust will forward the study of that interesting order. I assure you I return your box with reluctance, but to request the loan of it any longer would be of little use as it might be a little time before I could further avail myself of its valuable contents, it has been kept camphored and the insects I believe are as clean and in as good preservation as when you left them I therefore hope that you will recieve them safe and with my best thanks I will add you Mfs. also. Illiger [8] (Zusätze und Berichte zu Fabricius Systema Eleutheratorus. Magazin fur Insektenkunde 1. viii + 492 pp. 1802 etc). I will keep as it will not pack well and I hope to have another opportunity of sending it with some insects for you from Mr Dale [9] which I cannot very well get into your box. I assure you that Ichneumonidae or anything else from you will be very valuable and thankfully received and any additions or corrections you can make to my Guide I shall be much obliged to you for. I am now going on with the minute Lepidoptera, and having been carefully through Hübner, [10] Godart [11] and Ochsenheim [12] I hope to make some additions and any corrections and this is one reason why I have not yet named Mr. Templeton's[13] moths, but if you can tell me when next you write how I may forward them I shall not any longer delay returning them. I have lately received copies of Spinola[14] (Insectorum Liguriæ Species Novæ), Van der Linden's [15] Monograph on the Libellula and his observations on the ‘Hymenopteres d'Europe de la Famille des Fouisseurs’ a thin 4th volume Westwood [16] is engaged to write a 5th volume to the Introduction to Entomology we may therefore expect to hear something about the Chalcididae etc.Stephens [17] then now and again favours his subscribers with plate and 16 pages of letter press at the moderate charge of 5s and there were during my absence I hear ½ nos. at 2/6. I suspect it is a ship in distress and in endeavouring to get to windward of me he has got ashore I hope he will take care of his Crew. You would view with pleasure my French collection which however I hope to show you in better order than it is at present, We found very few minute insects and unluckily the bottle containing some very curious Difolepidae taken by Mrs F. Walker was blown out of a window between earth and heaven and was consigned to eternal oblivion in the shades below. We went to Jersey, landed afterwards at Grenville kept along the western coast to Bordeaux crossed to Narbonne turned off to Montpelier, Marseilles, Toulon, Isère and Arles, went to Lyons, across to the Puy de Domes, Fontainebleau and home through Paris where I was the day the Ordinances were issued without knowing it. I was delighted with my tour and astonished at the beauty and resources of the country. I think there can be no doubt that France is the most powerful nation in Europe with the means of doubling her strength and importance if she were disposed to enter as deeply into commerce as this country. In the south vineyards and cornfields dotted the country, even the hills were covered with olives, the roadsides produced the fig, the almond and pomegranate and at Heires the Myrtles full in flower grew as spontaneously as the Whitethorn here. It is indeed a land flowing with wine and oil if not with milk and honey. The sandy districts about Marseilles produce some fine Coleoptera and a vast number of Hymenoptera, especially Formicidae, Bombicidae and Sapyga, a great many Neuroptera, Ascalaphi, Myrmeleon, very large Cicade and many types of Genera perfectly African. If there be any genera of which you desire specimens if I have duplicates they are quite at your service I have lately bought a valuable collection of Coleoptera from Senegal in which there are two species of Megacephala [18]larger than any of our Carabidae, but I gave so much money for it that I must divide it and sell half. So you see I have not been idle and I am happy to learn that you can say the same. Trusting that you will never entirely neglect our favourite study and that when opportunities offer you will not forget Brit. Ent. I remain my dear sir wish you a happy Xmas and New Year Yours faithfully, John Curtis. Have you read my friend Lyell's [19] Principles of Geology, if not do so I have visited the fossil beds at Aix[20] . 4 Grove Place, Lisson Gr. 19 Dec. 1830