Ɛpsilon

To Ernst Krause   [12 December 1880]1

Sunday morning

Down, | Beckenham, Kent. | Railway Station | Orpington. S.E.R. [Leith Hill Place, Surrey.]

(Away from Home return on Wednesday)2

My dear Sir

I am writing in a great hurry on account of Sunday Post.— I am much pleased that you will answer Mr Butler— I have been advised not to do so.—3 What you say in your letter is perfectly true.— Your conduct towards me has been in every respect & at all times most generous.— I think that your answer had better be short.—

Butler has written an abusive letter about me to the newspaper & I have written to a friend to send it you as soon as possible.4 I have not read & do not intend to read a word which he writes— I really think that he is half insane & a lady who knows him well, says it is extreme vanity—

Pray send me a corrected proof of your answer.

Yours ever gratefully | Ch. Darwin

In great Haste

1
The date is established by the relationship between this letter and the letter from Ernst Krause, 9 December 1880. The Sunday following 9 December 1880 was 12 December.
2
The Darwins had visited CD’s brother, Erasmus Alvey Darwin, in London from 7 December 1880; from 11 December, they stayed at Leith Hill Place, Surrey, the home of CD’s sister Caroline Sarah Wedgwood. They returned home on Wednesday 15 December (CD’s ‘Journal’ (Appendix II)).
3
See letter from Ernst Krause, 9 December 1880 and n. 2. Krause was planning to respond to Samuel Butler’s Unconscious memory (Butler 1880).
4
Butler’s letter appeared in the St James’s Gazette, 8 December 1880, p. 5.

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

0.4 Wednesday] below del ‘Monday’
1.3 in your letter] interl
1.4 answer] above del ‘letter’
1.4 had] after del ‘had be’

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-12465,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-12465