To J. L. Chester 2 March 1880
Down,| Beckenham, Kent.| Railway Station | Orpington. S.E.R
March 2d. 1880
Dear Sir
Your letter & pedigree arrived here on Sunday & the M.S. yesterday.1 I have read it with the greatest interest, & am completely astonished at your success & at the wonderful amount of labour which you have bestowed on the subject. I am sure we have all much cause to be grateful to you. It is surprising that you shd. have been able to find out so much.
I well remember my Father2 saying that no one knew or probably cd. ever know anything about W. Darwin of Cleatham.—3 There is a strange interest in reading the old Wills, & this has been increased manyfold by your remarks. My son Leonard has not seen the M.S. as he was forced to return to [Chatham] early on Monday morning.4 I will this day write & tell George in Cambridge.5 Both of them will feel the keenest interest in reading your lucid history of the family.
With my sincere thanks, I remain | Dear Sir | Yours very faithfully| Charles R. Darwin—
Footnotes
Bibliography
ODNB: Oxford dictionary of national biography: from the earliest times to the year 2000. (Revised edition.) Edited by H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. 60 vols. and index. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2004.
Summary
Thanks JLC for his letter, pedigree, and MS of the history of the Darwin family.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-12505F
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Joseph Lemuel Chester
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- James Innes (private collection) (Sold at Bonhams, 13 March 2002)
- Physical description
- ALS 3pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 12505F,” accessed on 26 September 2022, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-12505F.xml
