Relates anecdote concerning the blind Henry Fawcett and the Bishop of Oxford; Fawcett proclaimed, within the other’s hearing, that the Bishop had not read the Origin.

Invites Mrs Huxley and the children to spend a fortnight at Down.

MS of Chauncey Wright’s review has not yet arrived.

[P.S. missing from original.]

Returns a letter, which, when it is published, he believes will make readers take up THH’s lectures in a more impartial spirit.

On THH’s Lectures to working men.

Work by Ferdinand J. Cohn on the contractile tissue of plants ["Über contractile Gewebe im Pflanzenreich" Abh. Schlesischen Ges. Vaterl. Cult. 1 (1861)] seems important. CD has come to the conclusion that there must be some substance in plants analogous to the supposed diffused nervous matter in lower animals.

[Part of P.S. missing from original.]

Apologises for passing on what he agrees were offensive remarks in V. Lushington’s letter. Has told VL he had no right to make them. Asks THH to make allowance for red-hot disciples defending the master.

Delighted with THH’s review [in Academy (1869)] of Haeckel’s [Natürliche] Schöpfungsgeschichte [1868],

but groans about THH’s view of rudimentary organs. Cites Origin and Variation.