To G. H. Darwin   19 April [1879]1

Down, | Beckenham, Kent. | Railway Station | Orpington. S.E.R.

Ap. 19th

My dear George

You have been very good. The letter to Dr. Okes is the one which I most cared about.—2 I cannot think who the calumnious article cd. have been about 1802.—3

I am not well so no more.

Yours affect | C. Darwin

1
The year is established by the reference to Okes’s letter (see n. 2, below).
2
Thomas Okes was a medical student and a friend of Erasmus Darwin at Cambridge. The letter addressed to him was published in Erasmus Darwin, pp. 14–15.
3
Probably a reference to an anonymous article in the Monthly Magazine, or, British Register 13 (1802): 457–63, in which Erasmus Darwin was described as vain and susceptible to flattery, and his literary pursuits were said to be motivated only by the wealth they produced (p. 463). CD referred to the article in Erasmus Darwin, p. 65.

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

1.2 article] after del ‘letter’

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-12004,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-12004