To Victor Marshall   14 September 1879

My dear M^r Marshall

Your letter amused us much. It was very acute of M^r Ruskin to know that I feel a deep & tender interest about the brightly coloured hinder half of certain monkeys.—¹

With respect to the tree you wish to treat me as if I were a Royal Duke, but of course I shall be proud to be so honoured.² I am, however, perplexed what to send, for it would be a pity not to plant a handsome tree. I admire some the American oaks & have got a beauty, but stupidly I forget its name, but could get from Kew one of the handsomest, as Hooker knows them well.³ I have a fine young Picea nordmanniana in a pot, which I procured because a Frenchman says its leaves sleep, which mine will not do, & in a month’s time shall have no use for.⁴

Lastly my father sowed the acorn of a cork-tree on my birthday, & I have one of its children which is now covered with acorns, & if they ripen this autumn, shall I send you some:—the young trees would be my grandchildren in one sense.—⁵ Here is a fuss about the tree; but what shall I do?

It is a constant pleasure to me to recall the scenes at Coniston,⁶—the one out of your grounds which is most indelibly impressed on my brain, is on the cross-road from beneath your house, near to the Ewedale road, where a fine rugged mountain is seen over a flat field, with an old farm-house with fine sycamores on the left-Hand. It seems to me a perfect picture. I heard lately a story of a rough Yankee who was showing the Hudson River to an English Lord, who admired the view greatly. The Yankee then said “Yes, Lord, we take a deal of pains with our scenery”; & I think that you all at Coniston have taken a deal of pains with your mountains.

Believe me | yours very sincerely | Charles Darwin