To E. F. Lubbock   18 July [1878]1

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

July 18th

My dear Lady Lubbock

Your account of what I have done in natural history is full & accurate, really to a quite wonderful degree.2 It could not have been better done, & I do not think that I could myself have remembered all the points to which you refer, or have selected better ones.— I shd. be the most greedy man alive for praise, if I were not very much more than contented with what you have so kindly said of me.—

Pray believe me | Yours very truly obliged | Charles Darwin

P.S | Instead of giving at end references to my papers, I have added the titles of my later books.—3

I have also added name of my maternal grandfather, of whom I am proud.—4

1
The year is established by the date of Lubbock’s account of CD (see n. 2, below).
2
Lubbock’s article about CD was published in the University Magazine in August 1878 ([E. F. Lubbock] 1878). She evidently sent a draft to CD for his approval.
3
The bibliography contains a selection of CD’s articles and books ([E. F. Lubbock] 1878, pp. 162–3).
4
The article mentions that CD’s paternal grandfather was the ‘celebrated’ Erasmus Darwin; CD presumably added the phrase ‘and his maternal grandfather was Josiah Wedgwood, the well-known potter’ ([E. F. Lubbock] 1878, p. 154).

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-13824,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-13824