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Darwin Correspondence Project

To H. E. Litchfield   11 [December 1879]1

11th

Down.

My dear Etty

I send by this post, Guthries book which you will perhaps not care to see after reading Moulton’s letter. I also enclose William, who wished to see Moulton’s, so please send it.— You had better ask whether Eras, wd like to see the Book & these letters.2 I have sent the Photo. to Mrs Billing.3

Good-bye dearest— love to Litchfield— you have both been very good to us.—4

Your affec | C. Darwin

I scrattled to death.—5

3o15 P.m. Mother not arrived!6

Footnotes

The year and month are established by the relationship between this letter and the letter from J. F. Moulton, 10 December 1879.
CD’s copy of Malcolm Guthrie’s On Mr. Spencer’s formula of evolution (Guthrie 1879) is in the Darwin Library–Down. See also letter from W. E. Darwin, [8 December 1879], and letter from J. F. Moulton, 10 December 1879. Erasmus Alvey Darwin was CD’s brother.
Mrs Billing has not been identified.
CD and Emma Darwin had stayed with Henrietta Emma and Richard Buckley Litchfield in London from 3 to 8 December 1879 (Emma Darwin’s diary (DAR 242)).
In the Darwin family, ‘scrattle’ seems to mean chatter.
The Darwins had returned from London, where they had been staying with E. A. Darwin, on 11 December (CD’s ‘Journal’ (Appendix II)).

Bibliography

Guthrie, Malcolm. 1879. On Mr. Spencer’s formula of evolution as an exhaustive statement of the changes of the universe. London: Trübner & Co.

Summary

Sends M. Guthrie’s book [On Mr Spencer’s formula of evolution (1879)], although HEL may not care to read it having seen Moulton’s letter [12350].

Letter details

Letter no.
DCP-LETT-12353
From
Charles Robert Darwin
To
Henrietta Emma Darwin/Henrietta Emma Litchfield
Sent from
Down
Source of text
Sotheby’s (dealers) (28 March 1983)
Physical description
ALS 2pp

Please cite as

Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 12353,” accessed on 29 March 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-12353.xml

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