TO THE REV. WILLIAM BUCKLAND, D.D. F.R.S. 
CANON OF CHRIST CHURCH, AND READER IN GEOLOGY AND MINERALOGY IN THE UNIVERSITY 
OF OXFORD. INSTIT. REG. SOC. PARIS, CORRESP. ETC. ETC. 
MY DEAR SIR, 
At eighteen years old, I formed the proud design of obtaining for our Country, 
a Geological Collection of the Organic Remains of the Ancient Earth, which 
should rank with the Great Collections, and peradventure excel them. 
At twenty, it was my happy fortune to obtain the honourable sanction of your 
high name and approbation. In my twenty-third year, your alliance helped me 
to effect the first step towards the end of my ambition, and my early Saurian 
Remains were deposited in the British Museum. 
You have ever since given me a thousand flattering testimonies of Friendship, 
and tightened all the Chords of that Sentiment, by which man is bound to man. 
I regret, that in dedicating this Book of Ichthyosauri and Plesiosauri to 
yourself, I so faintly respond those affectionate manifestations, and feel how 
much I remain, 
My dear Sir, 
Your obliged and devoted Servant, 
THOMAS HAWKINS. 
Sharpham Park, Somerset, 
March 26th 1840. 
