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Dec 15 1844

To the Trustees of the British Museum

My Lords and Gentlemen,

With reference to my recent letter to your address relative to my zoological collections and researches I have the honor to inform you that, my immediate return to India having just been decided on, I conceive it to be on many accounts most desirable that I should carry back with me my original Drawings as well as my Notes and Memoranda, leaving only my finished series of drawings together with the whole of my specimens in the possession of the Museum to be appropriated and distributed as already proposed.

2. Accordingly I now request that my first proposition to you, my Lords and Gents. may be modified upon this plan because, in order to enable me on my return to India to resume and complete my zoological researches with the greatest rapidity and effect I shall need the whole of my original drawings and Notes, while my departure is so near that no time is left for any further proceedings in conjunction with the proposed Nominee of the Museum than the transfer to him of the specimens; and, indeed, to ensure that transfer being satisfactorily made it had become indispensable that not a moment be lost in the selection and despatch to Canterbury of the said Nominee.
3. I beg leave therefore to solicit an early decision upon this point; for the specimens to be disposed of are exceedingly numerous and valuable and have been collected at so great a cost that it is most desirable their dispersal should be adjusted as far as possible before my departure.
4. Of the series of finished drawings which I propose to present to the Museum a considerable number have been lent to an Artist of the name of Howard who [proposed?] their publication but has now desisted from that intention I recommend that steps be immediately taken by the Museum to recover possession of these drawings which were lent to Mr. Howard after they had been deposited in the Museum to which they are now presented by me, their sole and absolute owner.
5. The small portion of the series which is unfinished, shall be transmitted by me from India as soon as may be, it being no longer possible to have them finished in London as before suggested by me.
6. I return to India with the full purpose of effectively completing those researches which my sudden departure thence so sadly interrupted, and, in order, to their completion in the most satisfactory manner, I beg leave to suggest that some competent officer of the Museum be placed in communication with me and be authorised and directed to be [concert/consort?] which was mentioned in the prior letter, it being my anxious wish still to carry out, with the sanction and support of the Trustees, the complete original idea of an Illustrated Fauna of Nepal and Tibet based on these drawings; and I would accordingly hereby solicit the separate favourable consideration of the Trustees for that eventual undertaking which with the patronage of the British Museum would be extensively aided by subscriptions in India where when by sudden departure dislocated all my plans these drawings had already attracted general admiration owing to their extraordinary Zoological accuracy and to the quality of collateral illustrations of the habits and manners as well as the structures of species which they embrace and the fruit of years of continuous toil aided by the unique and irrevocable opportunities

I have [the honor to be]
Yrs
B.H. Hodgson
Late Minister at The Court of Nepal

To B.H. Hodgson
From J.E. Gray

25th Dec 1844
British Museum

My Dear Sir

This will be delivered to your by Mr. Gerard who will pack the specimens and give you an account of them. I have [desired?] him to bring the Thibet items with him by rail and to learn from Mr Masters the best ways of sending of the others.
As soon as I have received the specimens and been able to sort them into kinds I will as once proceed to make the short descriptions you desire of the hitherto undescribed specimens which are marked as not having yet been characterized in the list of your birds which you have promised to send to me and send their descriptions for mention in Taylors Annals of Natural History. It would be more satisfactory if you transmitted with the list the descriptions you have already made on these species that my additions may only be the filling up of any [?] that may be necessary as I consider everything that van be [?] from your own hands so very much more valuable thats what is to be desired from the study of the dry skins and bones and at the same time more satisfactory. As soon as the collection is sorted out and the duplicates distributed into sets for the different Museums according to your letters we will set to work to form the catalogue of them and of the drawings but it would greatly facilitate this affair if you will give me a complete list of your various Papers and the Books in which they have appeared that I may search for them in the India House and other libraries for the local magazines of India very rarely find their way to this country and are even more rare in perfect sets. Hence the great difficulty we experience in knowing when the Indian species are described. This catalogue may be made in 3 or 4 months so as to appear in the Spring. I consider this catalogue of the greatest use as making known where your numerous and very interesting descriptions are to be found for if the works which contains them are rare in London their existence are quite unknown on the Continent and if the Specimens were sent without being accompanied by such work the names would almost all be considered as mere {Mss.?] one and therefore little or not at all recorded. You have more than once accused me of being anxious to grasp at your Collections, in this you quite misunderstand me, my anxiety to have the specimens is more on your own account than any mere wish to increase the Museum Collection which has been increasing at the rate of 20,000 specimens a year for the last 2 or 3 years and will have added more than 27,000 specimens this year. But by your sending a series of specimens to the British Museum there can be no [cavilling?] in time to come your discoveries and the type of your species and you will have them to refer to any time that your Nepal fauna may appear, at the same time it must be owned and nobody can be more willing to allow it than I am that your collection is a most magnificent contribution to the National collections and Science in general. I will use my utmost endeavour to induce some artist to undertake the publication of a selection of your drawings [figuring?] especially the more interesting of the numerous new species which you have discovered for I don't think that it is possible that I could ever find any one to Engrave or purchasers to support the entire series. I say artist for large publishers will never undertake such publications and I believe it is only a person who will devote himself to the work and to getting it into circulation as Mr. Gould does that could make a work of the hands pay its expenses. Should such an artist be found I will give him any assistance in my [?] power as I did to Mr. Howard when he was engaged upon it. If you were going to remain here I should have recommended you to have at once set to work to collect together [reports?] in a systematic form all the very interesting and strikingly novel [research?] and observations with which the backs of your Drawings and Notes Books are filled and to proceed to print them for I believe they would form a work which many publishers would be glad to undertake and which would be a most valuable contribution to [natural?] knowledge, but as your are going back to nearly the same neighbourhood I think it better the work should be delayed for a few years that you may add to it any fresh observations which you may be enabled to make and read it over when it is collected together into an acceptable form to take from it any [repetitions] and add to it the facts that must recur to your memory on such a perusal. When you have your materials together I will peruse and give you any friendly assistance that may occur to a [closet?] and systematic naturalise like myself but I am convinced/concerned from what I have seen of the notes that very little assistance will be wanted from me as I should not recommend you to over[burden?[ the work with dry systematic descriptions taken from the dry skins or measurements which are comparatively of so much less importance than the notes on the structure and habits of an animal or Birds made on the spot by an enlightened and accurate observer like yourself but what ever friendly assistance my numerous and laborious occupations here will allow me to give to the work I shall be most happy to afford though at the same I must decline to take on myself any responsible part in either the publication of the plates of letter press descriptions
Believe me my Dear Sir
Yours Truly
J. E. Gray

To B.H, Hodgson Esq.

To Brian Houghton Hodgson

British Museum
26 Dec 1844

My Dear Sir

Herewith as you wished I send you the following abstract of my letter to the Secretary of the British Museum respecting your collection
"Mr Hodgson wishes the museum to prepare at once "a short description of the new species to appear in one" of the Monthly scientific Journals and then to print a short "catalogue of the specimens and drawings presented by Mr. Hodgson to the Museum referring to where he has described them that he may have the credit of his discoveries which have been very numerous" "The collection of Specimens and Drawings are certainly the most extensive and complete materials which have ever been collected together for the Fauna of any country and of Europe (excepting perhaps those made by Mr Gould in New Holland) and it is very desirable that Mr. Hodgson should have every credit for the very great exertions he has used to make us acquainted with the Natural History and habits of the Mammalia and Birds of the provinces of India and Thibet "with the patronage of the India Company and the list of subscribers which Mr Hodgson informs me he has in India. I think it is very probable that before the end of the two years specified by Mr Hodgson (during which he has reserved to himself the exclusive privilege of using his [figures[ as specimens) It is very probable that some artist with the consent of Mr Hodgson may be induced to undertake the publication of a selection of them. If this should be the case I have promised Mr. Hodgson that every facility and assistance which it can be in the power of the Zoological department (consistent with their other duties) to afford him shall be given to him to forward his wishes.

Yrs very truly
John Edw. Gray

[Written on outside of letter]
1844
Gray's pledges
and report to the Trustees

He promises
1st describe new species within a month
2nd to make catalogue in 3 or 4 months
3rd to exert himself touching publications of Drawings

N.B. Catalogue to be distributed with each set of duplicated forwarded to the following by Brit. Mus. Paris, Leiden, India House, Canterbury, Newcastle, Plymouth, Manchester, Liverpool, Edinbro., Dublin
Their address?

To B.H. Hodgson

British Museum
Feb 6th 1845

My dear Sir

I saw in looking over the list of Birds that the Tibetan Pheasant that the 2 [Grandalleus[em] Caldeola?] has not been marked, it was at the stuffers when the list was being prepared, so it escaped, we did not retrieve any specimens of the Ganges Pelican but only a head. Besides the [587?] Birds distributed according to the list there are numerous specimens in so bad a state as not to be of any use to any person. What shall be done with them?
The catalogue we are preparing will contain a detailed list of every specimen we have received from you between 1840 and now. I send herewith a list of the Mammalia shewing how they and their bones have been distributed. If you let me have the list of Birds for a day the distribution of the Birds since should be added to it.
I should recommend the Bird Bones to be sent

1. To Coleges of Surgeons
2. To Museum Haslar Hospital the second best anatomical hospital in England
3. Leyden
4. Paris
   2, 3 and [?] will be very small in number. Mr. Strickland has written to say he's very much obliged to you for having given him some of your birds. I saw his note
   Yrs very truly
   J.E. Gray

My brother desires me to inform you the Sun Birds stuffed they come to 1. 5. 0 case and all. Shall they be sent to Canterbury or where. I here from Mr. Rees that they have found 50 drawings of Birds at the Zoological Society but they say they are waiting for your instruction to deliver them. Pray write to them.

To the Trustees of the British Museum London

My Lords and Gentlemen
Before my return from India I presented to the British Museum a large series of zoological specimens collected in Nepal in the last [20] years and I at the same time submitted a series of Drawings made under my directions in Nepal. I have brought home with me from India further ample supplies of both specimens and drawings as well as some Memoranda and Notes (diminished unhappily by accidents on the way) relative to the animals collected and delineated. The whole constitutes a large mass of materials procured at great expense for the illustration of the Zoology of Nepal and of Tibet, and it is my wish, while making the British Museum the primary Depositary of these materials to procure its aid in such a disposal and use of them as may most effectively to further the interests of Science both by distribution and by publication. I am however aware of the rules of the British Museum and therefore solicit its counsel and advice upon the following propositions and suggestions which occur to myself.

1. One complete series of specimens (skins) and of drawings to be presented by me to the British Museum which institution shall return to me all duplicates already in its possession and shall appoint an officer to select from my fresh stores at Canterbury such further specimens and drawings as are required for completing its series.
2. The officer above named to give me his aid in selecting from my specimens already in the Museum and at Canterbury further series to be presented, as far as the specimens go. 1st to India House 2nd to Paris Museum 3rd to the Leyden Museum 4th to that of Canterbury 5th to other institutions of Great Britain till the specimens are exhausted
3. The same or other fit officer of the Museum to be appointed to examine with me my Notes and Memoranda as well as drawings with a view to publication if found advisable in such form and with such aid as to the Trustees may seem proper. Meanwhile, no public use to be made of either specimens or drawings without my consent.
4. The series of finished drawings being not quite complete, the museum to appoint some Artist to complete it from the original rough drawings in my possession and from which that series was copied

very little additional work is needed for the end in view

Gents
your ob[edien]t Servant
B.H. Hodgson

In consideration of the donation of these drawings and skins to the British Museum; the collection and preparation of which have been to me a source of very great expense I would respectfully ask the Trustees to give me aid from the public resources at their disposal such aid in the publication of a Fauna of Nepal and Thibet, as they may deem suitable or to recommend to the British Government to give my projected work that support which has recently been so liberally bestowed upon similar labours. Meanwhile no public use to be made of either drawings or specimens
I have the honor to be
My Lords and Gentlemen
Your ob[edien]t Serv.
Signed B.H. Hodgson

P.S. My Zoological collections embrace an extensive osteological series which as not being suitable to the British Museum it is my intention to present to the Royal College of Surgeons with a request of such aid and cooperation as may seem fitting in reference to the objects of the above letter

[Marginalia]

150 species of Mammals
650 of Birds besides fishes, snakes etc

other institutions subsequently specified as Newcastle, Liverpool, Manchester, Edinbro, Dublin, Plymouth

Canterbury January 3[r]d 1845

The Trustees of the British Museum

My Lords and Gentlemen
I have this day delivered to the Agent of the Museum at this place the following articles in continuation of the series of drawings and specimens illustrative of the Zoology of Nepal and Tibet already presented to the Museum
Drawings of Animals 15 +
Drawings of Birds 70 = 85

Skins of Mammals 402 +
Skins of Birds 4444 = 4846

Osteological specimens of Mammals 406+
Osteological specimens of Birds 663 = 1069
Grand Total as per details Lists delivered to Mr Gerrard 5996

The osteological Specimens have been added to the others in compliance with a suggestion of the Keeper of the Zoological department after inspection of them, and I believe they will be found of high value not only in helping to determine the important question of the true nature and limits of species, but also in forwarding the great end of natural classification not to speak of the aids they will afford towards [fixing?] the particular species of my large Collection upon a firm basis. I shall be glad to learn that the Trustees ratify the suggestion of their Officer.
This branch of the Collection, like the others, is rich in duplicates of which assuming that the originals are permanently deposited in the Museum, it is my request that one series may be hereafter delivered to the College of Surgeons if desired by that institution.
The drawings now presented, amounting to eighty one constitute the regularly numbered sequel of the series to which they belong (20 inches by 12) and which series they nearly complete. What remains to conclude the set shall be prepared and sent as soon as may be. Meanwhile I recommend that prompt measures be taken by the Museum to secure possession of those which went before them and which having fallen into various hands do not seem to be, all of them, forth-coming as they ought to be. The numbered Catalogues according to wh[ich] these drawings were prepared and despatched from India, will afford a ready clue to the amount of drawings that ought to be forthcoming according to the Catalogues adverted to, the number of Species is as follows -
Mammals of Nepal 126
Birds of Nepal 656
Mammals of Tibet 47
Most of these species were separately delineated and of many of them there were several delineations in this series of drawings, not, to mention the larger series preceding it and which likewise, so far as carried, ought to be forthcoming and has been presented to the Museum

Signed
B.H. Hodgson