From S. H. Haliburton   21 November [1880]1

Bridge House | Richmond | S.W.

Novr 21st.

Dear Charles Darwin

(For I really cannot address you in any other way)2

Yesterday I read, in a leading Article of the Times, “Of all our living Men of Science, none have laboured longer, or to more splendid purpose than Mr Darwin”,3 & it recalled to my mind, your boyish assertion made many many years ago, that “if ever Eddowe’s Newspaper alluded to you, as “our deserving Fellow Townsman”, your ambition would have been amply gratified”—4

So you may believe with what sincere gratification, I see your fondest hopes, more than gratified, & realized— You have hosts of friends, but few older, or more sincere than myself, for you are associated with the happiest memories of my youth, & I have the most affectionate recollections of the name of Darwin, as connected with all that was good & pleasant— How my poor Father5 would have rejoiced in your “splendid success”, & I can fancy his carrying that Newspaper about, & reading it to every body!—

It is a long time since I have heard any thing of you, but I hope you are tolerably well, as I see you are able to receive “Deputations”—6

Let me hope we may live to meet again, meanwhile believe me always | Your’s very affectionately | S. H. Haliburton

CD annotations

Top of letter: ‘done’ ink
1
The year is established by the reference to the review of Movement in plants (see n. 3, below).
2
Haliburton had addressed CD by his first name in their youth (see Correspondence vol. 1, letter from Sarah Owen, 18 February [1828]).
3
Haliburton quotes the first sentence of the review of Movement in plants in The Times, 20 November 1880, p. 9.
4
Eddowes’s Journal was a weekly newspaper published in Shrewsbury (North 1997, s.v. Salopian Journal and Courier of Wales). Haliburton had recalled the same ‘boyish assertion’ in her letter of 3 November [1872] (Correspondence vol. 20).
6
CD had received a deputation from the Yorkshire Naturalists’ Union at Down on 3 November 1880 (see letter from W. C. Williamson, 17 November 1880); the visit was reported in The Times, 19 November 1880, p. 4.

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-12834,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-12834