British Museum
23rd Dec 1844
Sir
The Trustees having had under their consideration your letter of the 15th inst. direct me in reply to acquaint you
1s That they have instructed Mr. Gray, the Keeper of Zoology, to proceed immediately to Canterbury, for the purpose of receiving the whole of your specimens and finished Drawings remaining there, and of conveying them to the Museum
2d that, as soon as your Collection arrives, they will give directions for the selection of the Duplicate specimens not required for the Museum and for the distribution of these Duplicates to the Institutions named in your former letter, and to such others as you may specifically direct, attaching in each case a list of the specimens
3d that they will also investigate the circumstances attending the detention of the Drawings lent to Mr. F. Howard, and will endeavour to procure their restoration
4 that the Keeper of the Zoology will no doubt be at all times happy to receive any communication with which he may be favored by you upon matters relating to his Department of Natural History, and to aid your researches in India, by such general advice and counsel as may not e inconsistent with his other very numerous and pressing duties
5 that the Trustees will take measures for the preparation forthwith of a list or short Catalogue of the Specimens and Drawings which you have had the liberality to present to the Museum, and will transmit a copy of the Catalogue to you in Nepal as soon as it had been prepared; and lastly that strict injunctions will be given to the officer in charge of your Drawings not to suffer any public use of them for two years from next January. With regard to the other points which you suggest, and particularly the publication of an illustrated Fauna of Nepal and Tibet, The Trustees beg to refer to my letter to yours of the 20th inst.
I have the honor to be
Sir
your most obedient
humble Servant
J. Forshall
Secretary
To B. H. Hodgson Esq
Memorandum of the Zoological Specimens and Drawings presented to Mr. B. H. Hodgson to the several institutions specified
BONES SKINS
Bird Beast Bird Beast
British Museum 351 195 British Museum 1753 170
India House - 45 India House 655 102
Leyden 40 - Leyden 536 78 [70]
Paris 52 - Paris 462 40
Berlin - - Berlin 411 37
Frankfurt - - Frankfurt 352 7
Edinbro - - Edinbro 321 -
Dublin - - Dublin 290 -
Newcastle - - Newcastle 259 -
Manchester - - Manchester 237 -
Canterbury - - Canterbury 213 -
Earl Derby - - Earl Derby 205 -
H. Strickland - - H. Strickland - -
College of Surgeons 140 58 College of Surgeons 169 -
Haslar Institute 79 - Haslar - -
India House
DRAWINGS
British Museum Total 1064 Sheets
July 1845 Alfred at sea
N.B. Bihar Birds two boxes omitted
B.H.H.
Letter from W Masters to Joseph Sabine at Bruton Street regarding a present received by Canterbury Museum from S R Lushington, recently returned from India, comprising of 2 Hunt Leopards, 1 Royal Tiger and 2 Black Monkeys. They are currently in the West Indies Docks. The Museum has no facilities for handling them and asks to send for the animals to Regent's Park
Copy of a letter from Earl Charles John Canning to Colonel Phipps regarding birds in Calcutta and an expedition by an agent of the Zoological Society of London
Belgrave Mansions S[outh?]
My dear Hodgson
I had a talk with G. Marshall today about your portfolios from wh[ich] he seems to have already abstracted such memoranda as [?] on the [Capitonida?] wh[ich] is the [work?] he has in hand. The rest of the contents of y[ou]r collection he wishes to catalogue for Hume's benefit and such a catalogue is a [?] for the [?] of naturalists generally. He hopes to find time for clarifying and cataloguing all y[ou]r drawings before he leaves England and in the interval will get Hume's reply to the letter wh[ich] he has written [explaining?] all that he has seen at Alderley. We both think that [regard?] being had to his own available space you had better send me portfolio at a time. He will write to you himself on this subject. I don't think from the tenor of our conversation that Hume's [?] book presents itself to him in a more definite shape than it does to me. But there appear to be some printed sheets of the work on their way to Engl[and] and these will show us something of the plan and if you approve of this and Hume expresses a wish to profit by your notes for the rest of his book you can hereafter supply him with the materials he requires. This methinks w[oul]d be preferable to sending out all yr portfolios indiscriminately. Marshall is evidently incorrect and may be relied on for [?] that he undertakes. He expects to publish his first [no?] of the Barbets on the 1st prox[imity]. I shall not be able to visit you for another fortnight or 3 weeks - My daughter Mrs [Strepwell?] will have I find to leave London to seek a milder climate in the I. of Wight. I have been looking at the so called Maracus Pelops in the Zoo, the animal is quite different from that I believe you to have described. I s[houl]d like to see from figures and notes of all the monkees your collection may contain. You might put these with the first portfolio wh[ich] you send up to us.
With Kind Regards to
Mrs. H.
Ever Y[our]s S[incerel]y
A. Grote
33 Upper Berkeley Street
Portman Square
8 Feb[ruaru]y 1870
My dear Mr. Hodgson
I had a talk with Mr. Grote yesterday about y[ou]r portfolios. What I want to do myself is to send the whole of them as they are to Mr. Hume, as agreed in my brother's care, he sails next months and there they could be sorted, translated and arranged with the greatest convenience and incorporated at once with Humes work; Mr. Grote does not believe in Hume and I was unable to convince him that the book would certainly be published, and in that case he proposed and I assented to, keeping them in abeyance for a short time and having them up one by one to sort and catalogue; but on returning home and again reading over Humes letters (parts of which I enclose) I thought three was sufficient guarantee for the publishing of the work, and that the sending of your portfolios out direct would be a saving of both tie and labour. I have written to Mr. Grote to this effect. I have been hard at work lately and so these has been a little delay in answering you. I feel a little delicacy in proposing the wholesale sending out of your treasures to India but I am convinced of their safety and that it is the greatest opportunity of utilizing them likely to occur, and you have been so kind about them already of course. Everything would appear in your name.
With my Kindest regards to yourself and Mrs. Hodgson
Y[our]s very truly
G.F.L. Marshall
To Brian Houghton Hodgson
118 Cambridge Street
Warwick Square
S.W
12th April 1870
My dear Mr. Hodgson
The pamphlet that Hume published has arrived and I send you a copy of it by book-post this day. It contains a great deal of useful information and it is a thorough field ornithologist's handbook, but it requires revision and systematizing and that I hope it will get when published in its complete form. We have had no answers as yet to our letters to him and are anxiously awaiting them. If we are able to induce him to come home for a year so as to combine his immense store of notes from all sources with that already on record in libraries and revise the synonymy it may be made into a most complete work. Mr Grote tells me that you wish to subscribe to our monograph and also to Hume's book. It is very good of you indeed to back us up after you had for so long relinquishes the pursuit and got out of the habit of interesting yourself in birds. I was going through the Journal of Asiatic Society the other day and I was quite overwhelmed with the immense number of your contributions to it on every subject. Are you coming to town this season, I hope so. I should much like my eldest sister to meet you she should thoroughly appreciate so staunch a liberal and especially one from India and she is a great friend of your friends the Colvilles.
Please give my kindest regards to Mrs. Hodgson and believe me
Y[ou]rs very truly
G.F.L. Marshall
Zoological Society of London
11 Hanover Square
London W
23 July 1874
Dear Sir
I think your view of the Bye-Laws is correct, and that your annual contribution will be £2.
As soon as I get the order of Council for your admission I will write you again.
Yours truly
P.L. Sclater
Secretary
B.H. Hodgson Esq.