From M. T. Masters 6 May 1871
Gard. Chronicle | Office | Covent Garden
(May 6. 71)
My dear Sir,
The perusal of your fascinating volumes of the Descent of Man will no doubt lead many to send you anecdotes of dogs usque ad nauseam.1 As however your waste paper basket must be large there will surely be room for this note if it be of no interest to you—and therefore I venture to send you a copy of a note I made in 1865
“A dog (bull-dog) belonging to my next door neighbour calls the servant every ‘lawful’ morning at seven a.m. by barking (?) or scratching at her door but on Sunday mornings the dog does not rouse the servant till 8 a.m. The dog has done this without fail for several years”
—My neighbour at that time was a great dog fancier and kept several bull-dogs and he told me that anectode many times and showed me the dog. Though this is merely hear-say evidence I have no doubt what ever that it is correct and should you desire to sift the story I could readily furnish you with the name and address of my quondam2 neighbour—
Faithfully Yrs | Maxwell. T. Masters
C. Darwin Esq
CD annotations
Summary
After reading Descent, MTM sends report of a dog that woke its master at 7 a.m. on work days and 8 a.m. on Sunday.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-7740
- From
- Maxwell Tylden Masters
- To
- Charles Robert Darwin
- Sent from
- Gardeners’ Chronicle
- Source of text
- DAR 171: 82
- Physical description
- ALS 4pp †
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 7740,” accessed on 24 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-7740.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 19