APPENDIX. 601 



In May 1810, I received from Mr. Kirby four of his longest letters. 

 There was then a pause of nearly three months ; and his next letter, 

 begun May 29th, was not finished and sent off till August 15. The be- 

 ginning of this last portion is given, as it will interest Entomologists, and 

 as furnishing some traits of my friend of his own sketching, but very 

 similar, I fancy, to what we most of us experience in similar circum- 

 stances. 



"Aug. 15, 1810. Your reproof, my dear friend, was not unmerited; and 

 what can I do but appeal to your good nature for forgiveness, after having 

 stated circumstances which may a little extenuate, though not excuse, my in- 

 dolence and procrastination ? About the middle of June, I went to Livermere, 

 near Bury, to visit a friend who was formerly entomologically inclined * : he 

 lives in a spot very favourable to the entomologist. Here I picked up many 

 good things, particularly Neuroptera, Hymenoptera, and Diptera ; besides 

 which, my friend permitted me to rummage over his collection and take what 

 I liked, so that I carried home a large box full of insects. This set me, when 

 returned to Barham, to looking over my collection in Orthoptera, Hemiptera, 

 Neuroptera, Hymenoptera, and Diptera, a great many of which were scattered 

 about in boxes, &c., and which, upon inspecting them, I found were going fast 

 to ruin ; and I saw it was necessary, if I meant to preserve the many good 

 things I had collected, to put them in order, and in a place of security. This 

 has employed all my leisure hours since my return from the above visit. I 

 have now nearly finished the Hymenoptera, which occasioned me infinite 

 labour, and have then only the Diptera to put to rights. During this interval, 

 also, my house has been full of guests. Yet with all this business I have been 

 daily thinking of writing to you, but my employment kept seducing me ; so I 

 said to myself, when I get through this genus I will write. Before your letter 

 arrived, I had determined, as soon as I had done the Hymenoptera, to dis- 

 charge the debt upon my conscience. It is too much my way, when I have 

 begun to delay writing to any friend, to procrastinate in this way ; and when 

 I engage in any pursuit, it is with ardour ; but if anything occurs to suspend 

 my career, so that I lose the habit, I get a horror against it, which prevents my 

 returning to it till after many efforts, so that, as you justly say, sometimes I 

 come down like a tropical torrent, and then follows a season of drought. You 



will see by this that I have not lately done much in our opus magnum 



With respect to your letters, I shall answer the last first. You say your letter 

 on internal anatomy occupies fifty pages. Don't you think you can reduce it 

 to smaller compass ? for it strikes me that, considering the variety of matter 

 we have to handle, that, unless we attend to brevity, we shall have our work 

 extend to two or three volumes." [Then follow two folio pages of various 

 remarks on the anatomy of insects, &c.] 



In the summer of 1812, I spent four or five months in London, occupy- 

 ing the mornings chiefly in Sir Joseph Banks's rich library, which he threw 

 open so liberally and unreservedly to the researches of naturalists, in 

 collecting materials for our work ; and about two months at Barham, 

 where we jointly read and corrected the Letters that were to form the 

 first volume of our work. 



In the spring of 1814 I had the great delight to receive a long-pro- 

 mised visit from Mr. Kirby, but which, unfortunately, the delicate state 

 of Mrs. Kirby's health obliged him to restrict to about ten days. These 



The Rev. Peter Lathbury. 



