To S. H. Haliburton   22 November 1880

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

Nov. 22d 1880

My dear Sarah.

You see how audaciously I begin; but I have always loved & shall ever love this name.—1 Your letter has done more than please me, for its kindness has touched my heart. I often think of old days & of the delight of my visits to Woodhouse & of the deep debt of gratitude which I owe to your Father.2 It was very good of you to write. I had quite forgotten my old ambition about the Shrewsbury newspaper; but I remember the pride which I felt when I saw in a book about beetles the impressive words “captured by C. Darwin”.3 Captured sounded so grand compared with caught. This seemed to me glory enough for any man! I do not know in the least what made the Times glorify me, for it has sometimes pitched into me ferociously.4

I should very much like to see you again; but you would find a visit here very dull, for we feel very old & have no amusements & lead a solitary life. But we intend in a few weeks to spend a few days in London;5 & then if you have anything else to do in London you would perhaps come & lunch with us.

Believe me my dear Sarah | Yours gratefully & affectionately | Charles Darwin

My health is better than it was & I am able to do daily a good deal of work, but 24 hrs never pass without some discomfort, & I am easily tired. Nevertheless there is much to make me happy & life is still an enjoyment.—

2
Haliburton’s father, William Mostyn Owen, was the squire of Woodhouse in Shropshire; on CD’s friendship with Mostyn Owen, see Correspondence vol. 2, letter from William Owen Sr, 21 November 1838).
3
The Shrewsbury newspaper was Eddowes’s Journal (see letter from S. H. Haliburton, 21 November [1880] and n. 4). On CD’s beetle specimen, see ‘Recollections’, p. 379, and Correspondence vol. 1, letter to W. D. Fox, [15 July 1829] and n. 1; the publication in which CD’s name appeared was J. F. Stephens 1828–46 (Illustrations of British entomology).
4
Haliburton had read the review of Movement in plants in The Times, 20 November 1880, p. 9. A highly critical review of Descent had appeared in The Times, 7 April 1871, p. 3, and 8 April 1871, p. 5; see Correspondence vol. 19, letter to John Murray, 13 April [1871].
5
CD stayed at Erasmus Alvey Darwin’s house in London from 7 to 11 December 1880 (CD’s ‘Journal’ (Appendix II)).

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

0.1 (Railway … S.E.R.)] parentheses added

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-12839,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-12839