Ɛpsilon

From E. R. Shaw   2 December 1879

Springfield, | Roupell Park, | S.W.

Dec. 2, 1879.

Sir,

I venture to trouble you with a line to communicate a curious fact which came under my notice during a visit, from which I have recently returned, to the island of Sark.1

Several of the horses there have a well developed beard. One which I saw was a bushy growth more than three inches in length and curling gracefully outwards, thus ( diagram ) The people of the island attribute the peculiarity to the horses’ browsing among the furze.2

Your writings have profoundly interested me, and it occurred to me that the above fact is just one of the kind of observations which you would be glad to have communicated.3

Should it, however, not be new to you, or should you deem it valueless, you will I trust pardon my troubling you with this note.

Believe me to be, | Sir, | Yours faithfully, | E. R. Shaw.

Dr. Darwin, F.R.S. | &c &c &c

P.S. I am indebted to my neighbour, Dr. Wallich, for your address.4 | E.R.S.

1
Sark is one of the Channel Islands.
2
Furze or gorse is Ulex europaeus, a dense, thorny bush.
3
CD mentioned horses’ hair as being sometimes curled in Variation 2d ed. 1: 56, and discussed the mane as a protection during fights in Descent 2d ed., pp. 521–2.
4
George Charles Wallich is recorded as living at 3 and 4 Christchurch Road, Streatham, Lambeth, in the 1881 census; Springfield was next door to Wallich’s address (Census returns of England and Wales 1881 (The National Archives: Public Record Office RG11/626/17/27). Wallich had been a correspondent of CD’s in 1860, 1869, and 1872 (see Correspondence vols 8, 17, and 20).

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-12339,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-12339