604 APPENDIX. 
of tithes, and to acknowledge him as a minister of the Gospel. They are toa 
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 asingle 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. Richardson’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, Kirby. 
“Wm. Spence, Esq., Poste restante, Milan.” 
“Barham, January 11th, 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, thet I have delayed from day to day 
beginning an epistle to the sojourners at Leamington. But though I have not 
written, we haye 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 
14th, 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 
heing exhausted it was necessary to bring forward a sixth edition of 
Vols, I. and IL., which it fell to my share to prepare, as my venerable 
