To W. B. Tegetmeier 1 September [1860]
Down Bromley Kent
Sept. I.
My dear Sir
I am very much obliged for the Field (returned by this Post), I have copied the passage, which is extremely satisfactory to me.—1 You have settled the point right well.—2 You have so repeatedly & so kindly taken much trouble to oblige me, that I am loth to refuse anything which you ask. Not to mention that you greatly overvalue anything which I could contribute, I really do not know what I could, I shd so much dislike you to think me churlish, that permit me to be a little prolix.— I have wasted, chiefly owing to my daughter’s illness, more than two months this summer, but I am now got to my work again.— I never am able to work more than 3 hours per diem. The subject of Bees-cells has almost gone out of my head, & I assure you on my word that it would take me a week or 10 days to get it all up, so as to write anything on the subject.3 I really cannot spare so much time; so much behind hand I am in all my work. I trust that you will excuse me. If I had anything ready & worth sending I shd. feel myself bound to send it you; but I have not & could not prepare anything without going over all my rough notes & specimens.
Pray forgive me & believe me | My dear Sir | Yours sincerely | 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–.
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
Regrets he has nothing that he could contribute to the Field and cannot spare the time to work out anything on bees’ cells.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-2904
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- William Bernhard Tegetmeier
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- Archives of the New York Botanical Garden (Charles Finney Cox Collection)
- Physical description
- ALS 4pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 2904,” accessed on 27 September 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-2904.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 8