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To J. M. Rodwell   3 June 1877

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3 June 1877

My Dear Sir

I am very much obliged to you for sending me the extract from the sermon, which has amused me. It is as great an honour to be abused by an archimandrite, as according to the old story to be horsewhipped by a duke! …1

LS

1
See letter from J. M. Rodwell, 1 June 1877 and n. 1. An archimandrite is a priest in the Eastern Orthodox church, ranking below a bishop and usually in charge of a large monastery or group of monasteries. The source of the expression ‘horsewhipped by a duke’ is an article by Thomas Babington Macaulay that first appeared in the Edinburgh Review ([Macaulay] 1827, p. 246). CD used the phrase in his letter to Friedrich Max Müller, 15 October [1875] (Correspondence vol. 23).

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-10981F,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-10981F