To John Fiske   10 June 1879

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

June 10th 1879

My dear Mr Fiske

Would it suit you best to come here on the 18th. either to luncheon or to dinner & for a bed, returning after breakfast next morning; for we are not likely to be in London for some time.1 Pray do whichever suits your arrangements best.— If you come for luncheon you must leave Charing Cross by the 11o 25′ Train; if for dinner by the 4o 12′ Train.— If we can (but our house will be very full on most days for the next month) we will send to Orpington Station to meet you: but if we cannot send a carriage you must take a fly—distance 4 miles.—

I hope what I propose will be convenient & that we may have the pleasure of seeing you here

I remain | Yours very faithfully | Ch. Darwin

I have not been very well of late & am up to but small exertion of any kind.—

An artist, Mr Richmond is coming here on the the evening of the 18th, as he is making a portrait of me, but he is a pleasant man & I do not think that you will dislike meeting him.—2

1
Fiske visited on 18 June 1879; he recorded a short account of the visit (J. S. Clark 1917, 2: 133–4). The Darwins went to London on 26 June 1879 (Emma Darwin’s diary (DAR 242)). Fiske had arrived in England from America on 4 June 1879 in order to deliver a series of public lectures at University College, London (J. S. Clark 1917, 2: 115, 126).
2
The portrait had been commissioned from William Blake Richmond by the Cambridge Philosophical Society to commemorate the honorary doctorate of laws (LLD) awarded to CD by the University of Cambridge in 1877; it showed CD in his red doctor’s robes (for more on the portrait, see Browne 2002, p. 451). See frontispiece.

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

0.1 (Railway Station … S.E.R.] parentheses added
0.1 (Orpington. S.E.R.)] double underlining added
1.1 on the 18th.] interl
5.1 the evening of the] interl

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-12098,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-12098