Down, | Beckenham, Kent. | Railway Station | Railway Station | Orpington. S.E.R.
June 5th
Dear Sir
Will you be so good as to send me as soon as you can by Post. (as I leave home on Friday morning)2 a pair of webbing bracers, with cat-gut & pulleys in front.—3 Please remember that I am 6 ft high & require rather long bracers.
The correspondent is conjectured from the reference to ‘webbing bracers’ (see n. 3, below). The year is established by the form of the address on the printed stationery, which was used by CD from November 1874, and by CD’s departure for Leith Hill Place on 8 June 1877 (see n. 2, below). In 1877, 8 June was a Friday.
CD stayed at Leith Hill Place in Surrey, the home of his sister, Caroline Sarah Wedgwood, and her family, from 8 to 13 June 1877 (CD’s ‘Journal’ (Appendix II)).
Bracers: a pair of braces or suspenders (OED). CD obtained his clothing from the London tailor Henry Huntsman; he usually settled his account in January and July each year (CD’s Classed account books (Down House MS)).