TO THE REV. WILLIAM BUCKLAND, D.D. F.R.S.CANNON OF CHRIST CHURCH, AND READER IN GEOLOGY AND MINERALOGY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD.INST REG SOC PARIS CORRESP ETC. ETC. |
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MY DEAR SIR AT eighteen years old, I formed the proud design of obtaining for our Country, a Geological Collection of the Organic Remains of the Ancient Earth, which should rank with the Great Collections, and peradventure excel them. At twenty, it was my happy fortune to obtain the honourable sanction of your high name and approbation. In my twenty-third year, your alliance helped me to effect the first step towards the end of my ambition, and my early Saurian Remains were deposited in the British Museum. You have ever since given me a thousand flattering testimonies of Friendship, and tightened all the Chords of that Sentiment, by which man is bound to man. I regret, that in dedicating this Book of Ichthyosauri and Plesiosauri to yourself, I so faintly respond those affectionate manifestations, and feel how much I remain, My dear Sir, Your obliged and devoted Servant, THOMAS HAWKINS. Sharpham Park, Somerset |