skip to content

Darwin Correspondence Project

From G. M. Asher   16 February 1878

8, Cambridge Terrace, | Railton Road Herne Hill.

Febr 16 1878

Dear Sir

It strikes me that I ought to apologise for the strange request I took the liberty of addressing to you.1 The gentleman whom I had begged you to oblige, being excessively vain, would certainly have felt a gratification a hundred times beyond the trouble the sending of a ⁠⟨⁠pho⁠⟩⁠tograph and of a few lines would have cost you; and he must really have exerted himself to send such a large box which probably contains a great variety of steppe-wheat seeds, together with some of the blades— But still my request was unjustified. I hope however that you will not be offended by it, nor by my former ⁠⟨⁠le⁠⟩⁠tter which really had no other purpose than to make a perhaps not quite convenient proposal which however I desired to make, and to save you the trouble and embarrassment to answer it.2

If these mistakes of mine prevented your kindly granting my request to be allowed to call upon you, when the seeds arrive, all the trouble would have been useless; and I should be in a difficult situation.3 The box will either be sent to you from Petersburgh carriage paid; or if that be impossible it will be sent to me and forwarded by me.

The excès de zèle4 of Mr. Galkine has taken me by surprise. I really do not know why he sent such a large box, nor what are its contents. That the fault is not mine is proved by the following fact. I sent to Mr. Galkine an open letter through a friend in Petersburgh (the special correspondent of The Times);5 and my friend, who has had the box in his rooms for some time hesitates to forward it, because he understands, how embarrassing and unexpected such a large box must be, But perhaps it will be all the better; and the collection will be really interesting. The gentleman who sent it certainly is able to provide a more complete collection than any one else.

Begging you, Dear Sir, to excuse my awkwardness I remain.

Dear Sir | Ever obt Yrs | Dr. G. M. Asher

Footnotes

In his letter of 14 February 1878, Asher asked CD to write a letter of thanks, enclosing a photograph, to Mikhail Nikolaevich Galkin-Vraskoi.
See Correspondence vol. 25, letter from G. M. Asher, 11 November 1877, in which Asher repeated his request for CD to help him to find a young naturalist to go to the Russian Steppe to carry out research.
Asher had asked to visit Down when the box of wheat seeds arrived to explain its contents; see letter from G. M. Asher, 14 February 1878.
Excès de zèle: over-zealousness (French).
Donald Mackenzie Wallace was foreign correspondent for The Times in Saint Petersburg. Galkin-Vraskoi was governor of Saratov province.

Bibliography

Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.

Summary

Apologises for taking liberty of request made in previous letter.

Tells CD ways in which large box of wheat specimens might be shipped from St Petersburg.

Letter details

Letter no.
DCP-LETT-11361
From
Georg Michael Asher
To
Charles Robert Darwin
Sent from
London, Cambridge Terrace, 8
Source of text
DAR 159: 120
Physical description
ALS 4pp damaged

Please cite as

Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 11361,” accessed on 29 March 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-11361.xml

letter