604 APPENDIX. 



of tithes, and to acknowledge him as a minister of the Gospel. They are too 

 long to insert here, or I would send you a copy. 



" You ask me to report progress with regard to my present undertaking. 

 [The ' Bridgewater Treatise.'] It requires more time than I calculated to bring 

 it out in a satisfactory form. I have written nearly 200 pages, but I fear I shall 

 not get all I have to say in a single volume ; but this, time will show. I find 

 my memory does not help me as it used to do. [A summary of his plan fol- 

 lows, and queries as to any observations made by my Italian friends on the 

 animals of Aristotle or Pliny, especially the Polypus.'] I forget whether I men- 

 tioned to you that the second volume of Dr. Eichardson's 'Fauna Boreali- 

 Americana ' is published. It is a most splendid volume, with coloured figures 

 of the more rare N. American birds. We are establishing a Literary Insti- 

 tution and Museum at Ipswich. I have promised them my herbarium, which 



is considerable, and shall also give them my fossils We have escaped 



the cholera in this part of the kingdom, in spite of the communication between 



Ipswich and London, Newcastle, &c I have not taken an insect for 



ages. At seventy-three one cannot see. 



" Yours, my Dear Friend, 



" Very affectionately, 



" WM. KIRBT. 



" Wm. Spence, Esq., Poste restante, Milan." 



"Barham, January 1 1th, 1841. 



" My Dear Friend, I fear you have wondered and felt disappointed by the 

 non-arrival of any letters from Barham since the rector and his lady reached 

 that place. At first I was prevented from writing by an accumulation of 

 business which called for immediate attention ; and since, with one thing or 

 other, my time has been so fully occupied, that I have delayed from day to day 

 beginning an epistle to the sojourners at Leamington. But though I have not 

 written, we have daily thought of them, and spoke of them, and not seldom 

 wished that we were again enjoying with them the morning rambles and social 

 evenings that were so pleasant to us. But I must tell you our history since 

 we left Cambridge: After spending a week at the latter place and Stretham 

 very pleasantly, we packed ourselves into the Ipswich coach, and arrived at 

 dear old Barham once more, on Friday, December 18th, which we left October 

 1 4th. We found all our connections and friends well, and were received with 

 hearty welcomes ; and were thankful to see them again, and be settled down 

 for the winter amongst them. And winter, indeed, it is, for the country has 

 been covered with snow since the beginning of this month ; but this morning a 

 rapid thaw appears to have commenced, so that I shall content myself with 

 perambulating my passage instead of my parish, I wonder whether your 

 Leamington meadows have been covered with the above winter garment ; this, 

 I fear, would confine your rambles within a narrow space. 



*' Have you seen Henslow's paper on the diseases of wheat ? I 



received it, not long since, from the author. It is printed in folio, and contains 

 about seventeen pages. It was printed for private circulation, so I expect is 

 not to be purchased. If you have not received a copy, I can send you mine. 

 This is all the scientific news that I have to communicate " 



The first volume of a translation of the " Introduction * into German by 

 Professor Oken was published at Stuttgart in 1823 ; the second in 1824 ; 

 the third in 1827 ; and the fourth in 1833. 



A fifth edition of our book had been called for in 1828, and on its 

 being exhausted it was necessary to bring forward a sixth edition of 

 Vols. I. and II., which it fell to my share to prepare, as my venerable 



