Item data
Item Type:
Document
From:
Smith, Sir James Edward
Sent from:
London
To:
Woodward, Thomas Jenkinson
Sent to location:
Bungay, Suffolk
Summary:
Spent Christmas at Sir Alexander Hume's in Hertfordshire. Hopes to have his usual annual party of [Samuel] Goodenough, [Thomas] Marsham, and [Jonas] Dryander to his house next week, with Woodward's turkey acting as his ambassador; comments on turkeys being introduced from America to south of France by Jesuits. Asks for the Woodwards assistance in finding the tale in verse of the City mouse & country mouse" [note pasted to reverse of letter, in Smith's hand, with reference to Alexander Pope and Jonathan Swift]. He is "well pleased" with his royal pupils, who are "very diligent & apt"; returning after 4 June. Currently engaged in zoological lectures in London, has 16 subscribers, including Lord Stormont. Work on his "Tour" proceeded well at Frogmore.
Comments on 'Woodwardia'; on good grounds. Plans to figure 'Fucus abrotanifolius' in his uncoloured work. Error by [James] Sowerby in his figure of 'Cardamine impatiens' in "English botany". Praises beauty of [Edward] Donovan's [(1768-1837), natural historian] insect plates but the letterpress is "not scientific"; he is an "Irish compiling sort of adventurer in literature", previously published a "very bad" sixpenny botanical magazine. [Samuel] Goodenough still thinks the 'Fucus' Woodward mentioned is 'F. palmetta' of Gmelin.
Letter date:
9 Jan 1793
Languages:
English
Prev Ref No:
18.135
Additional Information:
| Note type | Note |
|---|
| Related Material | For Woodward's letter of 6 December 1792, to which this is a reply, see JES/COR/18/64.
Smith, J E, (1793). "A sketch of a tour on the Continent in the years 1786 and 1787" London.
Smith, J E, and Sowerby, J, (1790-1814). "English botany" London.
Donovan, E, (1792-1796). "The natural history of British insects... together with the history of... minute insects as require investigation by the microscope..." London: [privately]. |
