Ɛpsilon

To John Price   8 September [1877–80?]1

Down. | Beckenham Kent.

Sep: 8.

My dear Price.

It is very kind of you to send me the notes about the horses.— Some years ago the cases would have been very valuable, but I shall never write again on this or other such subjects.—2 What little more I can do will be in simple & easy observation

Your Guide Book seemed to me a very interesting one to any visitor— But I shall never visit the place again;—3 & as for Erasmus he has not left his house in Queen Anne Street for 3 years. & I fear never will again.4

You seem to keep far more vigorous than we two are.—

Copy

1
The year range is conjectured from the mention of Erasmus Alvey Darwin’s not having left his house for three years. Erasmus visited Down in September 1874, and that may have been his last visit from home (letter from Emma Darwin to H. E. Litchfield, [5 September 1874], DAR 219.9: 114). He died in August 1881.
2
The notes have not been found in the Darwin Archive–CUL. CD had discussed horses in Variation 2: 49–61. Price had written to CD about striped horses after reading Variation (Correspondence vol. 16, letter from John Price, 5 March 1868; see also Correspondence vol. 25, letter to John Price, 17 May 1877).
3
In his Llandudno and how to enjoy it: being a handy guide to the town and neighbourhood, Price included a couple of brief reminiscences about his visit to Llandudno with CD ‘about 1824’ (Price [1875?]; see also Glick 2010, p. 352).
4
CD’s brother, Erasmus, lived at 6 Queen Anne Street, London.

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-13836,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-13836