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Darwin Correspondence Project

To W. B. Dawkins   19 July [1869]1

Caerdeon, Barmouth, North Wales

19 July

[… admitting that he had disobeyed his instructions and dispatched a box of bones to him by rail, giving an account of the discovery of the bones at Perth y Chwaril on the Rhagatt estate2 and his promise to Miss Lloyd3 to obtain from Dawkins the English names of the principal bones, with postscript and emendation in text in another hand outlining details to journey to Rhagatt.]

Footnotes

The year is established by the relationship between this letter and the letter from W. B. Dawkins, 17 July 1869.
See letter from W. B. Dawkins, 17 July 1869 and n. 2. The bones were found on land belonging to the farm of Perthichwareu in Iâl, part of the Rhagatt estate (Lucas 2007, pp. 320, 325).
Mary Charlotte Lloyd was the daughter of the owner of Rhagatt, Edward Lloyd. Her brother, John Lloyd, who succeeded their father, was also dead by this stage (d. 1865) and the estate was controlled by her sister-in-law, Gertrude Lloyd, during the minority of John Lloyd’s nephew, another Edward, who succeeded in 1878 (see County families).

Bibliography

County families: The county families of the United Kingdom; or, royal manual of the titled & untitled aristocracy of Great Britain & Ireland. By Edward Walford. London: Robert Hardwicke; Chatto & Windus. 1860–93. Walford’s county families of the United Kingdom or royal manual of the titled and untitled aristocracy of England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland. London: Chatto & Windus; Spottiswoode & Co. 1894–1920.

Lucas, Peter. 2007. Charles Darwin, ‘little Dawkins’ and the platycnemic Yale men: introducing a bioarchaeological tale of the descent of man. Archives of Natural History 34: 318–45.

Summary

Admits that he had disobeyed his instructions and dispatched a box of bones to him by rail. Gives an account of the discovery of the bones at Perth y Chwaril on the Rhagatt estate. He has promised Miss Lloyd to obtain from WBD the English names of the principal bones.

Letter details

Letter no.
DCP-LETT-6836A
From
Charles Robert Darwin
To
William Boyd Dawkins
Sent from
Caerdeon
Source of text
Phillips, Son and Neale (dealers) (24 October 1985)
Physical description
ALS 4pp

Please cite as

Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 6836A,” accessed on 28 March 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-6836A.xml

Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 17

letter