To Reginald Darwin   2 May 1879

Down,

May 2, 1879.

My dear Cousin

I leave home on the 6th for 3 week’s rest and will then begin my preliminary notice and continue it after my return home.1

My object in writing is to say that I hope you will not consider me very unreasonable in keeping your various books for so long a time. I had intended to return them before leaving home, but one of my sons who understands mechanics has not yet had time to investigate how far some of the mechanical suggestions in the M.S. folio have since been improved or utilized.2 I have locked up all your books in an iron fire-proof Plate chest, so that they will be safe.

So pray forgive me and believe me | Yours very sincerely | Ch. Darwin

Copy

1
Between 6 and 26 May 1879, CD visited Worthing, Southampton, and Leith Hill Place (CD’s ‘Journal’ (Appendix II)). He was preparing to write the biographical account of Erasmus Darwin that would serve as a preliminary notice to the English translation of Ernst Krause’s account of Erasmus Darwin (Krause 1879a; Erasmus Darwin, pp. 1–127).
2
Reginald Darwin had lent CD several books, including Erasmus Darwin’s Commonplace book (Down House MS; see letter from Reginald Darwin, 29 March 1879). Erasmus Darwin’s more ambitious mechanical ideas were recorded in this book (see King-Hele 1999, pp. 136–8, 151–2, 162–3, 184–5, 204, and 216–17; Erasmus Darwin, pp. 118–24). The son was probably Horace Darwin.

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-12025,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-12025