My dear Father,

Thank you for the copy of your book.² I am much interested in reading a good deal of it; it almost makes one dizzy to think of the enormous labour of so many observations. I was delighted to see the article in the Times.³ What a wonderful sign of change of feeling that the old Times dares to write such an article without a sneer or a smile of pity.

It was really interesting and explained well I thought to the world in general the drift of your work—and it certainly is a compliment to have not merely a notice but an article.

I hope soon to go over to Beaulieu to get some worm castings,⁴ but the days are very short, & it is difficult to catch a fine day on which I can get away early enough.

My gardiner⁵ is an odd mixture of theory & sense; he has a great reverence for worms and calls them “our civil engineers”. I promised to tell Frank⁶ that he says that in order to make a shoot bend in any direction he only plucks off a few leaves on that side and he says the sunlight playing on the stem bends it over.

Goodbye dear Father   I hope Mother is well. it is very jolly to think of Christmas being so near | Your affect son | W. E Darwin