[Dr Helen Holme Bancroft, Oxford agricultural botanist.] Three Autograph Letters Signed to 'Dr. Francis', regarding 'the difficulties of archaeological research at Southend' and palaeobotany.

Author: 
Dr Helen Holme Bancroft ['Nellie Bancroft'] (b.1887), Reader in Agricultural Botany, Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford
Publication details: 
Two from the School of Rural Economy, University of Oxford (one on letterhead), and one from 5 St Edward's Passage, Cambridge. All dating from 1930.
£90.00
SKU: 13831

All three items in good condition, on lightly-aged paper. Letter One: School of Rural Economy, Oxford. 18 August 1930. 2pp., 4to. She sympathises with 'the difficulties of archaeological research at Southend [...] for I know only too well how the people who hold the ultimate strings can "do one down" when their interests don't happen to coincide with one's own'. She recalls that in 1913 she 'put in a lot of time on some fossils for the B.M. - they turned out to be pieces of fossilised timber; & because the Keeper of the Palaeobotanical Dept. was not interested in fossil woods of miocene age my notes are still unpublished - but I hope they are going to be shortly!' She asks him for permission to write 'a brief account of the plants of the Southend site' for the Annals of Botany', and whether he would edit it 'with regard to the probable age of the plants, their occurrence, &c. [...] I should be so grateful if you would allow me to do this, not only on account of its botanical interest, but to satisfy my department that I really have been investigating the vegetable debris I told them I was receiving!' Letter Two: St Edward's Passage, Cambridge. 22 August 1930. 1p., 4to. She does not know 'of anything in purely botanical literature on lake-dwelling plants as they are generally too late to interest the bona fide palaeobotanist; & the student of recent plants thinks they are only vegetable debris! The work of the Reids most nearly approaches this kind of investigation.' Letter Three. School of Rural Economy, Oxford. 15 October 1930. 1p., 12mo. She informs him that 'Prof. Blackman has accepted the note & diagram on the "lake-dwelling" remains for the "Annals of Botany"', and briefly discusses the publication plans.