RefNo | MS/251/15 |
Level | Item |
Title | Letter from John Hawkins, Bignor Park, near Petworth, to William Buckland, Oxford |
Date | 7 November 1823 |
Description | Hawkins has delayed responding to Buckland's letter until he had the appropriate information. The elephant's bones were discovered on the site of an old barn at a farm at Peppering in Burpham parish near Arundel. Mr Drewitt suspended work until Lawson could witness the excavation. With the exception of molar teeth, the bones were too rotten to be retrieved entirely. One molar has been presented by Drewitt to Mr [Gideon] Mantell of Lewes and the other, with a partial tusk, is for Buckland's collection. Hawkins gives a summary of the situation of the bones in the loam bed where they were found. In addition to these specimens, Hawkins proposes to send to Buckland the thigh bone and molar of an elephant which he found on the shore of Selsea island. He transcribes a letter from John Austin, the Rector of Pulborough, describing another elephant found in digging the Wey and Arun Canal, now in the Earl of Egremont's collection; with a second owned by a solicitor named Barnes, at Reigate. He notes an account in the Gentleman's Magazine for 1740. Comments upon Buckland's descriptions of such discoveries in southern Europe, which omits the work of Spallanzani and others. He has specimens which he shall send to Buckland if he is able to find them. |
Extent | 4p. |
Format | Manuscript |
PhysicalDescription | On paper |
AccessStatus | Open |
Fellows associated with this archive
Code | PersonName | Dates |
NA1676 | Hawkins; John (1761 - 1841) | 1761 - 1841 |