Ɛpsilon

To John Murray   20 November [1856–7]1

Down Bromley Kent

Nov. 20

My dear Sir

I am extremely much obliged for your very kind present & note.—2 I assure you that I had no intention of begging, but as I have given away during the last year or two a dozen copies, I thought the difference of price for the future was worth saving.— Your present is very kind & most acceptable.—

I hope that you are pretty well satisfied with the sale: it is a good deal more than I had anticipated.

Pray believe me | My dear Sir | Yours truly obliged | Charles Darwin

P.S. | I apologise for having given you the trouble to return me a note put in the wrong cover: this note has been returned to me from Devonshire. It was a very stupid blunder.—

1
The date of this letter and the letter to John Murray, 17 November [1856–7], is based on the ‘Down Bromley Kent’ address, which was in use in the second half of 1853 and from October 1855. If Murray had sent copies of CD’s Journal of researches 2d ed. on the Thursday carrier, as requested in letter to John Murray, 17 November [1856–7], they would have been received on Thursday, 20 November 1856 or Thursday, 19 November 1857. Either possibility would fit well with both letters.

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-1028,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-1028