Item 5 - Letter from A Grote to Brian Houghton Hodgson

1 letter

Belgrave Mansions S[ou]th

30 Jan[uar]y

My dear Hodgson,

I wrote to your yesterday in some hurry from the club and had not y[ou]r letter with me. On referring to the latter I find that you describe the material with wh[ich] you [anticipate?] supplying Marshall as bulky? - Not I know what a valuable collection of drawings you have in those large portfolios of yours and it would be a great treat to me to have them to reach in at my leisure - but please bear in mind that I am only fixed for some 6 months and have but limited space at my command. My [traps?], books, specimens etc. are all at the warehouse hard by Taylor's Depository. Marshall will have to confine his labours to the subject of his special Monograph - the [climbing?] Barbets there is already a question raised as to what families of the order sh[oul]d come into the group thus defined so that for his present purpose he will hardly require many of y[ou]r drawings. Suppose therefore you in the first instance only send y[ou]r ornithology drawings or shall I ascertain from M. what he would like to have of them, before you despatch any. He told you I suppose that he and his brother are only at home on a short leave. They seem to me to have already undertaken more than they can well do during their stay in England and I fear you may be disappointed if you expect much work from them on your materials [?] I say this without the least intention to disparage the bona fides of the 2 brothers in whatever they may have engaged with you to do - they are full of the true Zoolog. enthusiasm and will do their best. I was unable to attend the last meeting of the Z.S. I sh[oul]d probably have met them there, they do a great deal of their work there with [?] Sharpe out librarian whose monograph on the Kingfisher you probably know. Have you seen [Beauves?] Editor of Sir H. Elliot's Glossary he has done his work very well.

S[incerel]y y[our]s

A. Grote