To Skeffington Poole1 13 October [1858]2
Down Bromley Kent
Oct 13th
Sir
I have received a most obliging communication from Col. Curtis in India on the colours & stripes of native horses, on which subject I happen to be, as a naturalist particularly interested.3 He informs me that you probably know more on subject that any man living, & he tells me that I may use his name as an introduction, & I may add as an apology for the liberty, which I take in ad-dressing you.— He thinks that you would be so kind as to give me any information in your power.—
I have accordingly ventured to enclose some questions, & it will, I hope, not cost you much trouble to add to each a few words in answer.—4 I do not suppose that it is in the least likely that you can answer the greater number, but I have thought that I might as well ask all that I wanted to know.— It is, also, quite likely that your memory may not serve to answer positively, though when on the spot you might have been enabled to do so. The questions will probably appear very trivial, but they all grounded on some motive.—
I trust that you will excuse the liberty, which I take, & I shall feel extremely much obliged for any information, however small.5
Sir | I have the honour | to remain | Your obliged servant | Charles Darwin
Footnotes
Bibliography
Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.
Modern English biography: Modern English biography, containing many thousand concise memoirs of persons who have died since the year 1850. By Frederick Boase. 3 vols. and supplement (3 vols.). Truro, Cornwall: the author. 1892–1921.
Origin: On the origin of species by means of natural selection, or the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1859.
Variation: The variation of animals and plants under domestication. By Charles Darwin. 2 vols. London: John Murray. 1868.
Summary
Asks about Indian horses. Encloses questions.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-2152
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Skeffington Poole
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.)
- Physical description
- ALS 4pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 2152,” accessed on 15 May 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-2152.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 7