Letters from John Curtis to Alexander Henry Haliday 4th March 1833, 10th September 1833, 7th June 1835, 6th October 1835, 12th November 1835
4th March 1833 Curtis to A.H.H. My Dear Sir, Previous to my going to Oxford I obtained an Admiralty Frank for a letter I addressed to you and after sending and going myself to the Erin and other steamboat offices I found there were none bound for Belfast for three weeks. I therefore left it with my carrier who I find forwarded it by a sailing packet the Smack Ardent , John Gowan, Commander I directed the packet to Mr. J. Grimshaw, [1] Museum and it was left the office of Mr. L. Ogilby Ship and Insurance Agent, No.3 Ingram Court, Fenchurch Street. As this boat was to sail on the 22nd Feby I trust it escaped the terrific gales which happened about that time and as it was expected to be 9 days on its passage I trust you have by this time received my parcel. To prevent any mistake I write them and beg that as soon as you receive my packet, you will be good enough to write to me for independent of any fear that it might be lost. I am somewhat alarmed that it should get wet or otherwise be damaged. I have only time to add that the beautiful crimson-coloured sphex is the S. latreilli of the Magazin of Entomologie p1.33 and therefore we are deprived of one of our splendid insects for I think I stated to you that only those insects are to be described that have not yet been either figured or described…..
Curtis to A.H.H. 10th Sept. 1833
I was most happy to find that my letter removed the anxiety you entertained for the safety of my last parcel and I was not less so to learn by your last letter that it had arrived almost miraculously at its proper destination. I hope however that the year after the next we may meet at Dublin, for nothing but bad health and an empty purse shall prevent me that pleasure. (absent in East Anglia). I had hoped to find a few lines from you to tell me you were well and unluckily Mr. Templeton and a friend had called during my absence so that I did not even hear of you. ….. I believe the only prizes I have taken are Dasytes Filiformis, a new Chalcis and a new plume moth. I have however some insects in a box for you and also some from Mr. Dale which I should have sent by Mr. Templeton [2] had I seen him. I was truly gratified to see your Essay No.3 of Ent. Mag.[3] it is a most valuable contribution and I hope, ere long, to have time to study it thoroughly. I may without vanity be proud of the handsome manner in which you have mentioned my name, you have so often made me your debtor by stating information but I never considered but I was returning your kindness by the little acts of courtesy which I regret I have not the opportunity of showing you now. I wish all entomologists were actuated by the same in print my willingness to forward to those engaged in science although there are men for whom I have certainly have put myself to inconvenience to serve indeed if it were not for about half a dozen men whom I do regard most sincerely I believe sometimes I would give up entomology altogether I meet with so little encouragement and so much vexation but I will turn from this unpleasant subject and answer your letter and before I do so let me ask you if you see the Annals de la Societe Ent. de France. It is very interesting and useful and cheap. There are some of the Braconidae I have had my eye on to publish, but you are quite at liberty to make drawings of any you please, for I cannot say whether I shall be able to publish them and if I do so it would not be many and therefore would not, I hope, interfere too much with you. 545 is one it is more allied to 546 Macrocentrum Hob. and Rogas is another. Pray don't forget Sericostoma and thanks for your observations as it has not been described I shall be most happy to adopt Latreilles name many thanks. Also for the promise of the leuchus. I am as much surprised as you are to hear of the imperfect structure of the palpi of the Braconidae, still I should hope agree with other characters so as not to render it a generic ….. as yourself but you are the only one to have acknowledged necessary to abandon them in primary divisions in that family. Pray look after the sexes of Dorthosia and Coccus also, the males of which I here are not uncommon in Whitethorn hedges. I was very sorry to hear such an unfavourable account of Mr. Tardy for his own sake and I can ill spare those who cordially support the B.E. [4] I delivered your messages to Mr. Dale [5] , Mr. Walker [6] and Mr. Rudd. Mr. W. is now with the family in Cornwall and Mr. R.[7] I am glad to say has got a living which has carried him further north. Mr. Walker has said nothing about his progress in describing the American Diptera, I need not therefore hurry you but I hope on my return to town to attack my portion in earnest, otherwise I shall get into trouble I fear and have the cream taken away. If I could afford it I would go to Paris in the winter to compare the rarities for now poor Latreille [8] is gone I have no friend in that Metropolis and I do not much admire the modern school of enty. there. I have just received some fine insects from Peru but no Hymenoptera, also interesting insects from Thebes, Greece, Italy and Colombia and an Ent tract from New Harmony, Indiana [9]. Hope you are enjoying good health and have been able to devote some leisure to enty. and that I may ere long have the pleasure of hearing from you.
Curtis to A.H.H. 7th June 1835 since then I have received a letter from you by the Post which has given me unfeigned pleasure since I trust from its contents that nothing will prevent you from joining me in my intended excursion in the South of Ireland, and I shall only add that there was nothing I more earnestly desired and therefore began to fear from your not answering my last franked letter that you would be unable to give me the pleasure of your society. I beg to than you for the valuable topographical information that your letter contains which with the notes I made in reading Inglis's Tour [Henry D. Inglis, A Journey Throughout Ireland, During the Spring Summer & Autumn of 1834] I think will forward us in our route. I have been so occupied that I have not yet had time to order Wright's Guide to Killarney, but my views at present are to leave London on the 27th inst. for Bristol, to remain there Sunday and leave on Monday 29th for Cork, but as I know nothing about the Steamers I cannot tell whether I shall get there that day or the 30th, the last day of this month and as I am dependent on others very much my arrangements are sadly altered sometimes. ….. I wish to look about the southern part of Ireland, if time will allow, to see Killarney, go up the Shannon and afterwards visit Connemara and then I doubt not it will be time to start for the meeting at Dublin. I met a Captain Higham in Suffolk of the 4th Dragoon Guards who gave me some information strongly recommending me to visit the caverns at Michelstown, but from my disappointment in Skye I quite enter into your feelings and think such things never repay one for the trouble and inconvenience and moreover, it is not to my taste to be buried in the bowels of the Earth. I have much greater pleasure, indeed it fills me with sublime feelings to ascend a mountain and view as it were the world as we did from Scoat Fell [10] and I would rather travel a thousand miles for such an hour as that than to cross the Thames to burrow into a cavern. I have merely given you the outline of my intended route but we can fill it up as you wish when we meet. There is an oak forest at Waterford and Comeragh [11] I should think worth going to. The Gap of Dunlow on the Lake of Killarney is fine and we ought to get Carrauntoohil [12] 3410ft high. The pins etc you wish for I will bring with me. I shall put a knapsack in my Portmanteau for Connemara in case I should have occasion for it Dale and myself found it very convenient in the Highlands to have headquarters and start with our knapsacks when we could get no conveyance. ….. I feel greatly indebted to you for your kind invitation but I do not see how it will be possible for me to visit the North of Ireland this year but I hope it may be the means of giving me the pleasure of meeting you again before many years are over, for I should enjoy looking over your cabinet with you….. Many thanks for the names of plants, - any localities will be useful I have got some from Lady Blake and Dale which I believe are accurate. As I have nothing about Cork I shall call the first thing on Leiutenant Friend at his office. He is agent of the emigrants and a very kind gentle-manly man whom I have the pleasure of knowing. If you have not heard I shall leave my address there and if you arrive first please to leave your address for me, but as you know my arrangements you will hear of the steamers and it will delight me much to shake you by the hand on my arrival which remember will be the 29th or 30th June should anything delay me (which I have no reason to expect) I will write and beg you will do so if anything should occur to interfere with your arrangements but I trush such will not be the case for once plans are unsettled it is difficult to bring them again into train. Mr Gordon was so good as to forward your note yesterday saying that he should return to Dublin in about 10 days. I was very sorry I did not see your brother but it is very uncertain in finding me in except on Wednesdays. Davis has been visiting Lord Enniskillen [13] and his brother has returned from China I called on Bailliere [Hypolitus Balliére (1809-1867), 219, Regent Street, London was a publisher] but he was not at home but hope to see him soon. As I must be up early tomorrow morning I must conclude with best remembrances and hoping that we may have a punctual and joyful meeting.
Curtis toA.H.H. 6th October 1835 As I am very anxious to hear from you after you trip I hope you will be so kind as to write to me in ten days as I shall remain here a fortnight and if you will direct your letter under cover to the Duke of Malmesbury [14] - Heron Court at Ringwood, Hants, it will reach me free. I should have given myself the pleasure of writing to you earlier but I have been unwell. It was not until I had recourse to medicine that I got clear of the Galway Mulligrubs and until lately I have been absolutely confined to my chambers with rheumatism and a slow fever which took away all my strength, but I trust that the fresh air, pleasand society and kind hospitality I shall enjoy here shall set me up for the winter. I trust that you have not suffered in any way from our excursion and that altogether you do not regret the time you spent in rambling nor that you repent having attended the meeting of the Association [15] [16] . I however do regret that you were not the Secretary to our Section for which you were so well qualified and it was a compliment which no doubt would have been paid you had you been in the first instance on the general committee, however I hope we shall live to see you fill that office in your own town of Belfast. ….. I have not had time to look over my Essex and Irish boxes at present but I don't doubt I shall find many small insects to put into my cabinet although our little success in Ireland is really astonishing when one considers the extent of country we passed over and I cannot help thinking that we should have done more if we had been earlier and had been on the coast next the open sea for Roundstone I found decidedly the best place but it was ten rather late and having been rendered hours de combat I have little to show in proof of my assertion. By Mr Harris account Achill and the other parts of Mayo are much more uncivilized than the districts we ranged over and they are very likely to afford some good plants. I therefore hope that some day we will have the opportunity of completing our Irish tour. Next May and June I shall be compelled to go northwards for plants.
12th November 1835 Curtis to A.H.H. ….. I am happy to confirm your kind wishes for expecting a little Rheumatism which I imbibed I expect with the Goats Milk (from a Kerry cow probably) and Mountain Dew which I had to take for you as well as myself, I have not been in better health for many years which is a very pleasant change from the Galway Mulligrubs as Dr Farran calls them. The Harris is Charles Harris soon to be a Fellow of All Souls. I got a War office frank the other day to send my vasculum to Roundstone not for bad-water but for the Erica mediterranea which I have requested young MacCauley to send me fresh and it will thus come quickly and free through the kindness of my friend Mr Sulivan.