To K. M. Lyell 26 December [1875]1
Down, | Beckenham, Kent. | Railway Station | Orpington. S.E.R.
Dec 26.
My dear Mrs Lyell
I used formerly to burn all letters excepting a few, and such as I have kept from Lyell I now send.2 From the year 1862 I preserved all letters, and wish I had done so earlier. I am thus enabled to send all the letters from Lyell from 1862 to 1869 inclusive. Since ’69 I have not received many, & they have not been classed by my son George (who is just going to start abroad) and therefore I cannot send any if I possess them.3 Should I hereafter find any, they shall be sent to you. Although I valued most highly all the letters I received from Lyell, I suspect that they are much too special to be of any interest to the public; but I am at present so busy that I have not had time to read over a single one
Pray believe me | my dear Mrs Lyell | yrs sincerely | Charles Darwin
P.S The letters are so heavy that I have been forced to put them in 2 parcels.—
Footnotes
Summary
Sends Charles Lyell’s letters. Those from 1862–9 are so heavy that they have to be put in two parcels.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-13826
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Katharine Murray Horner/Katharine Murray Lyell
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- Kinnordy MS (private collection) (Sold at Bonhams, New York (dealers), 4 December 2019, lot 18)
- Physical description
- LS(A) 3pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 13826,” accessed on 26 September 2022, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-13826.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 23