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To Henry Woodward   13 February [1879]1

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

Feb. 13th

Dear Mr Woodward

I have signed the paper with pleasure.—2

Many thanks for your letter which has interested me in many ways. That about the Limulus sounds like a particularly interesting discovery.3 I am obliged for your kind expressions about me & my son.4 I go on working in a humble way, trying to add a few stones for building up the great edifice of Science.—

Yours sincerely | Ch. Darwin

1
The year is established by the relationship between this letter and the letter to Francis Darwin, 21 February [1879].
2
The paper has not been found, but it was possibly a nomination form for the Lyell fund of the Geological Society of London, which Woodward was awarded in 1879 (Geological Magazine (1921) 58: 484).
3
Woodward’s letter has not been found, but in his Monograph of the British fossil Crustacea (Woodward 1866–78, p. ii), he reported that the Limulus species of the Oolitic period had attained the degree of development and differentiation of modern representatives like Limulus polyphemus (Atlantic horseshoe crab). Despite its superficial resemblance to crabs, Limulus is now placed within the subphylum Chelicerata, not in the Crustacea.
4
CD quoted the ‘kind expressions’ about himself and Francis in the letter to Francis Darwin, 21 February [1879].

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-12474,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-12474