Ɛpsilon

To J. de C. Sowerby   [26 May 1850]1

Down Farnborough Kent

Sunday

My dear Sir

I am sorry to trouble you but may I beg you to inform me how you get on. I must come up on June 3d. & wd. call on you early on Tuesday morning the 4th, if you can see me. I wd bring up a few more specimens & some of your drawings which require a few small corrections. Possibly we might so arrange it, that some of the more simple drawings might be done direct on the Copper.— I must beg & urge you to despatch; for really I must return the specimens before very long.—

I could give a list in order of the species, & by making merely the rudest outlines we might perhaps arrange it, so that you might begin to engrave.— The Council of Pal: Soc: urge me on; but my answer to everyone is that my M.S. is & has been for some time ready, & all depends on you.—

Please to let me hear soon.—

Your’s very sincerely | C. Darwin

1
The date is based on an entry of 6 June 1850 in CD’s Account Book (Down House MS) recording the expenses of the trip to London referred to in the letter. CD’s paper ‘On British fossil Lepadidae’ (Collected papers 1: 251–2) was read to the Geological Society on Wednesday, 5 June 1850. A date of Sunday, 2 June, would have left insufficient time for CD to receive an answer before the proposed visit.

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

1.3 some of] interl
1.4 it, that] interl
2.1 in order] interl
2.1 merely the] ‘the’ interl
2.1 rudest] altered from ‘rude’
2.2 to engrave.] interl

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-1333,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-1333