Ɛpsilon

To T. H. Huxley   28 June 1881

Down, Beckenham, Kent [Glenridding House, Patterdale.]

June 28th 1881

(Home on July 4th)

My dear Huxley

I write one line to thank you for your note.1 I felt so strongly convinced that Häckel could not get aid from the two channels suggested by him, that I offered and pressed him to accept £100 from me in aid of his undertaking.2 But this will do nothing for him without some further aid, and I do not know any millionaire to whom I could apply, and indeed the case is not urgent emough to justify application to hardly any stranger.

I am very sorry to hear about Du Bois Reymond, as I liked much what I saw of him on one occasion, and he has always been most civil towards me as an evolutionist.—3 I am not in the least surprised about Virchow.4

I am glad to hear you have got a house at Grassmere. We thought it two years ago most beautiful, as is this place, and Borrowdale even more beautiful.5 I had no idea there was such lovely scenery in England. The inhabitants of this country might say, what a Yankee said to an English lord, who was admiring the Hudson river, “Yes, lord, we take a deal of pains with our scenery.”6

Ever, my dear Huxley | Yours very sincerely | Ch. Darwin.

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3
Emil Du Bois-Reymond was a strong supporter of CD’s theory of evolution by natural selection, but he disagreed with Ernst Haeckel’s version of Darwinism. For more on the nature of their disagreement, see Finkelstein 2019.
4
On the animosity between Haeckel and Rudolf Virchow, see the letter from T. H. Huxley, 28 June 1881 and n. 4.
5
See letter from T. H. Huxley, 28 June 1881 and n. 7, and (on Borrowdale) letter to G. J. Romanes, 27 June [1881]. The Darwins stayed at Coniston in the Lake District in August 1879 (Correspondence vol. 27); they visited Grasmere on 14 August (Emma Darwin’s diary (DAR 242)).
6
The source of the quotation has not been identified. The Hudson River valley is an area of south-eastern New York state, known for its scenery.

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-13226,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-13226