From Leonard Darwin to G. H. Darwin 26 October 1876

Dear George.

I should be very thankful if the next time you are passing through London you would buy some maps for me. The campaign that is to be worked up for the next Staff College exam is that in Bohemia in 1866. a very stiff one. I am reading Hozier (your present has come in very handy) and shall have done it in about a month, and then I shall begin the Prussian official account, which is the real thing to study. There are most excellent maps of all the battle fields given with the latter, but no general map. I have got a good atlas out of the Library here, so that I am really very fairly off. But if you could buy me any good map or maps of Bohemia, and perhaps Saxony and Silesia & Moravia. But I suppose they will limit the questions to Bohemia. There is no hurry about it. I think I owe you something already (10/- for sending thing by P.O), so that if you add this to it I will send you a cheque

Things are looking very war like at present, though I do not believe we shall get dragged into into it at present. The Russians are very much annoyed at the way the English papers have been talking of them; last night a Russian equerry to the Duchess of Edinburg gave several offices some of his mind in a most plain spoken manner. He said if there was war it would be all the fault of England, that the Russians intended to get Constantinople and the English were quite powerless to prevent it, but we could still join in the scramble and pick up Egypt or Crete or something of that sort. I fancy one of those islands would be the best thing for us. Lemnos or Mitilini would be the best for us as they appear to have good harbours.

Your affec broth. | L.D.