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Trinity College

Feb 28th 1838

My dear Mrs Buckland
Could you see the pile of letters I have still before me I think you would pity me and had you seen the struggles I have been making to clear off my epistolary debts, I think you would have given me an encouraging laugh, and as for your drops of pity - they would have been shed for the unfortunate correspondents who were doomed to read my handwriting. Now it is not very long since I have seen you and you have sent me a kind note in such a light hand quite unlike the pretty [pothooks?] most ladies now write and which we mortal men can read as the u's, m's and n's and i's [?] are all just alike so that the characters have no character at all that I am bound to write my best. In short I wish to tell you that I shall rejoice to be a sponsor for your little by. And that the temptation of a visit to Oxford is so very great that no ordinary engagement will prevent me from accepting it. It will be a great pride to me to have a little Sedgewick among your bairns that after all is it not a sad business to do things of this kind by Deputy, and would it not be far betters for me to have some little Sedgewicks of my own and so I will by the beard of old [Time?] Nay that's a foolish oath, as old Time has nothing to do with such matters. Let me therefore rather swear by the torch of Hymen and the wings of love that I will have my [?] encircled by olive branches that you shall be Godmother to the Sedgewick that is to be and that your 'guide man' shall stand for my young master so there's a bargain and say done. During the last three months I have had [?] [service/services?] dined almost to death-frozen almost to death-Cathedral service twice a day and each [?] [?] a Cathedral sermon and another at the Country Hospital - not to mention a short course of geological lectures for the benefit of the intellectual digestion of a [?] eating generation of East Anglian Aldermen and Alderwomen. No matter I have stood it all to admiration and have turned out plump as [?] theology ought to be. By the way I thought Dr. Buckland was looking rather thin but he said he was quite well and I don't know that a man is any better for the dilatations of certain large flat muscles that cover the region where pity and compassion are said to dwell. But after all a convex superficus is better than an angular one - to that I hope the doctor will soon come. After our anniversary I went down to Greenwich and spent the day with my dear friend Mrs [Aire/Airs?]. Home I had not seen since last Spring, twelve months since that time she has added a fine boy to the family [quiver?]. And if there be any trusting to outward signs she may before long [?] another [?] domestic arithmetic. But what can a Senior Fellow know of such signs? I can say I am only blundering. Time has made a sad change to Mrs. A since I saw her. She has lost a front tooth and looks very thing and ten years older than she did. Do you remember when she made any lady [?] I think it was in Exeter College when she glided to the piano cast up her beautiful and dark eyes, pushed back her raven locks from her cheek and struck up Hebe's Hymen. She was and ever will be once of the kindest and most charming natural characters ever adorned the face of woman, their moral beauties can only fade in the life itself but her personal attractions have already in a considerable measure disappeared. By the way I remember writing you a strange rigmarole about Mrs [Aire/Airs]. In a former letter. I don't know how many years since I saw Mary Conybeare while in town and went with her to Chantrey's studio. Is she not a very charming young person? She looks stronger than she was but I fear she is only delicate.

Best Regards to my Brother and
Best love to all your little geologists
Most truly yours
A. Sedgewick

P.S. I am turning back (before I seal this sheet up) to dot and i's and cross the t's. I could not help thinking that I had made a foolish [swagger?] about my bad writing considering the abominable [?] I have been sending you. Since I broke my arm my forefinger is quite stiff and my right ulnan nerve is often partially paralysed so that my hand gets worse and worse and still I often write with considerable pain

Mrs Buckland
Oxford

The Athenaeum
Nov ? [18]72

My dear Mrs Buckland

I am off by coach in a few minutes, but before I start I will try to [leave] this at the Sloppian Coffee House where your [gude man?] is disporting himself. Be it known to you by those present that my dog's wife - [Zelept?] Mustard, was safely delivered of a son about three months since - that said son was christened Pepper and is growing fast in all canine accomplishments. Bu the beast and his mother are both at Norwich, and as there is no coach from Cambridge to Norwich direct, I have not ventured to send either the mother or son, or to trust them to tender mercies of guard and coach driver. This is the cause of the delay. But if my friend Frank is become heartsick for want of Pepper I will do my best to have him sent to Oxford. The best way will be to send him to London sometime when Dr. Buckland is there. I shall be in Norwich [?] at my sister's residence on Dec 1st. Ant time after that day I can do the [?]. So much for canine matters - Last night we had a long discussion on canine teeth in which I was a listener. Indeed I was partly compelled to hold my jaw by a bad cold which has so damaged the vox humana and top of my organs, that at present they emit no sounds but such as are utterly beastly and inarticulate. The Doctor fought [lustily] but had I spoken I would have had a tilt at him for one sentence. He said there was evidence enough without more, and that he would not bring up his reserves to fight on the side which was already victorious. Those were not his words but they express his meaning. Now this will not do while there is doubt will as one [?], had you seen Dr. Grant opining doubts and difficulties you would have smiled and perhaps have thought that all the candles must be [lighted] before the mists clear. Be this as it may I do hope Dr Buckland will bring every chief block and payment which can give light to these dark [jaws?]. The anatomical evidence seems to preponderate greatly on one side, and yet I wish that side to lose for I have no idea that a warm blooded animal should dispose himself by restling away the [?] monsters of Horsfield.

My kindest love to all your little ones
Ever Vy ty yours
A Sedgewick

My dear Mrs Buckland

I have packed [young?] Pepper in a hamper, and mean to start him tomorrow by the Telegraph to London directed to Dr. Buckland, Salopian Coffee House. Mrs Mustard the Mother has I fear gone after strange dogs, as the puppy is not so well bred as I could wish. such as he is I send him for Frank with my best love.
My kind remembrances to your young ones - and kiss little Adam Sedgewick for me.

Most tr[ul]y yours

A Sedgewick

After I leave Cambridge my address for a week or two will be Dent near Kendal

Cambridge Oct 7 [1847]

My dear Mary

Many letters require speedy answers so in the first place I acknowledge your Mamma's kind note and send her my thanks for it. If an honest man be the noblest work of God, why should not an honest woman be put on as high a pinnacle of glory? I ment to write to you a letter of congratulation to reach you on the 13th, your birthday. But after the 10th I shall be on the wing for several days and have perhaps no time for writing. It is therefore best for me now to write to you tho' I am up to the ears in Examination papers; and [verily?] out of temper having not yet received one of my Norwich boxes which contained the whole series of my Welsh Geological Journals and ought to have come on Monday. My servant is going off to town to look for it and as soon as I am at liberty I shall come back to Norwich should the stray box not have come. But I beg your pardon for [bothering?] you with my own private troubles. On the 13th your Mamma will give you from me a small remembrance of your Norwich visit, wear it for my sake and accept my heart's best wishes with it. May your life be a life of happiness and may every step you take be a step nearer to heaven! May the blessings of health and romantic love be your [?] [?] [?] I trust that you will have many happy years after the writer of this note is under the sod and that you will continue to think kindly of one who loved your Father and Mother and loved you as a friend - tho' he is now jogging on in the season of the [?] and [leaf?] while you are [?] away the verdant blossom of early Spring. I do not mean to be poetical but plain truth you know is sometimes good poetry - therefore plain words honestly spoken. May God bless you and make you happy! Give my kind regards to your Father and Mother and believe me
Ever your affectionate friend

A Sedgewick

P.S. Isabella is here and we leave Cambridge for Yorkshire at the end of the week. Did she know that I was writing to you I am sure she would send her love.

N.B. You must shut this note up and read it on the morning of the 13th - which will do as well, you may put on the [?] of [it's time?] a day or two and appear you [?] it on the 13th

To Revd. Dr Buckland
Christ Church
Oxford

For[warde]d by Mr Audubon

My dear [Prof?]

The bearer of this note, Mr Audubon, is a very extraordinary person who has spent almost one half of his life in the forests of America - he is I dare say already known to you by reputation and if you can in any way recommend him to your Librarians so as to promote the publication of his great work on ornithology you will render a service to the scientific world as well as to an excellent individual. He came here from Edinburgh and had excellent introductions and I should rejoice to hear he was well [started?] at Oxford. He has lived so much out of the society of intellectual [?] that he does not say much in company, but his account of the Forest Life is highly interesting - when am I to have the pleasure of seeing you and Mrs Buckland here? Mr. and Mrs Murchison proposed to come but they have given me the slip and are off to Paris. I have not been in Town since our anniversary dinner. Have you any news from [?] by the way you will be happy to hear that Babbage is elevated to Newton's chair.

Yours most truly
A Segdwick

Trin. Coll
March 14

Revd. Dr. Buckland
Christchurch
Oxford

My dear Buckland

I yesterday sent a little present to my God Son I hope it has come safe. I intended that you would have been the Carrier but it was not procured in time. I saw Hudson Gurney. he gives an excellent acct. of the lad [?] he ordered. Lonsdale is willing to take him on trial for the long vacation (three months) and then to give up the [Museum?] [?]. If all turns out well, he may then become a permanent officer I think this plan excellent. Lonsdale will work him well and I will soon phophesy again if the lad do not fully answer to their [?] and turn out an admirable workman. I have just written to Hudson Gurney for his preliminary consent. The boy is at his disposal and so is now in a great manner supported by him if I am not much mistaken, should no difficulties therefore arise we can at the next council discuss the matter. You can if you see good prefer an employment of the boy doing the [?] under Lonsdale will [?] it his permanent appointment as C [etc. etc.?]

My remembrances to Mrs B. and my love to your children

Yours always

A. Sedgewick

My Dear Buckland

I am very much out of sorts; and I have a large party of strangers on my hands who after seeing the lions are to dine with me. But I have just time to say that I shall be happy to subscribe to the work you mention and that I will show your elegant Epistle among my friends. I hope you had my note of yesterday about [Ansted?]
My best regards to Mrs Buckland and my love to all the young ones

Yours ever

A Sedgewick
Cambridge
March 3rd 1840

London
Thursday Morng

My dear Buckland

I am passing thro Town on my way to Cambridge and have just stumbled on a park. If my Servant passed thro' Oxford and remembered to call for my Hat good - But if not pray send the said Hat to the office of the Cambridge [?] in order that it may be conveyed with the least delay to my head quarters in Trin. Coll. An old white Beaver is the present covering of my unacademical nob. and it will cut a sorry figure with a gown My coat is out of elbows and my [?] (made by the way by the fair hands of Mrs. B) is without any lining so I have need to call in all my reserves. My love to Eva and the rest of your squadron, my best regards to Madame

Yours ever

A Sedgewick

Postmark Cambridge
Nov 24 1833
Sunday Evening

Revd Dr Buckland
Christ Church
Oxford

Dear Buckland

I have just time before the Post shuts to tell you that a Professorship of Ecology at Dublin is vacant and that Phillips of York is in the field. Can you contrive to write to any of your Dublin friends to give him a [shove?] It will be an admirable thing to get so good an English ecologist at Dublin. It is impossible to find in the British Isles another candidate who is half so good. How are you all at Oxford - Madam, Frank, my daughter Eve etc etc

Yours always

A Sedgewick

Can you make a party to suggest a motion?

Trinity Coll.
Sunday
May 2

Postmarked J June 1835

My dear Buckland

Next Thursday will suit me very well, and I shall be happy to meet you and Lyell at the ordnance office at any hour that may be finally fixed on. On Wednesday I hope to have a paper on the Whitehaven Coalfield with some general remarks on the relations of the [Parton-Linston?] belt wh. runs to Egremont [?] foot of Staverson. The paper cannot be finished in the [?] but we can give the general ]?] and can have a page of details for the meeting of the October [?]. I shall rejoice to see Mrs Buckland and your children. I think it is about two years since I have shaken her by the hand. The Yorkshire [election?], a law suit and a bad cold has plagued me almost to death. The cold is [?] now that the wind blows from a quarter within two points of South. I heard from Langham a day or two since. William is doing very well [?] as and if God spare his health will work his way [?] to a Fellowship at Trin. Coll. Prey excuse this scrap of paper. It is the best I have.

Yours ever

A. Sedgewick