WORDSWORTH, William (1770-1850). Poet.
Autograph Letter Signed to Adam White (1817-1878, naturalist), 2 pages 8vo with envelope (in Mary Wordsworth's hand) pasted to the second leaf, Rydal Mount, 3 January 1845 The letter is tipped to a larger leaf with background notes presumably written by Adam White.
A fine leter concerning his own and Coleridge's interest in natural history.

'I have no reson for believing that Mr Coleridge studied any part of natural History Systematically, though he was a very minute observer both of plants and animals, or rather I ought to say of insects their forms and habits. And for myself I have no pretensions to be called a naturalist in any department, though I have lived so much in the Country, and with my eyes open upon much of what was going on around me.
 'Of the Book after which you inquire, having notes by Mr Coleridge I never heard before. ...'

Wordsworth also thanks White for enclosures (no longer present) 'which as far as I am entitled to judge, do you great credit', and wishes him well in his 'laudable pursuit' [of natural history].
 Adam White was employed by the zoological branch of the department of natural history of the British Museum (now the Natural History Museum) for most of his working life, and was responsible for a number of publications, the one mentioned here probably being his List of the Specimens of Crustacea in the Collection of the British Museum (1847). Only one other letter from Wordworth to White seems to be known (29 May 1846, largely concerning the British Museum), and the present letter is not published in The Letters of William and Dorothy Wordsworth, ed. Alan G. Hill (1988).
[No: 25199]