Ɛpsilon

To H. E. Dresser   [10 September 1875]1

Bassett. Southampton | ☞ (Railway Station | Orpington. S.E.R.)

Friday

Dear Sir

You will see by above address that I am away from home. We return home tomorrow, & if Dr Severstoff remains in London over Monday I shall have much pleasure in seeing you & him at Down on that (i.e. Monday) or any other day.— You must come to above station from Charing Cross, & I hope it would suit you to come to our Luncheon at 1 oclock.— There is a train which leaves Charing Cross at about the right time to reach Down at about 12 oclock (I forget exact hours) & you can leave us about 2 o clock.—2

Orpington Station is 4 miles from my House.—

Pray excuse brevity & this untidy note. I write in haste to catch morning post.— | Dear Sir | Yours faithfully | Ch. Darwin

1
The date is established by the reference to Nikolai Alekseevich Severtsov, who visited Paris and London in 1875 (Tort 1996), and by the reference to CD’s return from Southampton ‘tomorrow’. In 1875, CD stayed at his son William Erasmus Darwin’s house in Southampton from 28 August to 11 September (CD’s ‘Journal’ (Appendix II). In 1875, 10 September was a Friday.
2
Dresser and Severtsov visited Down on Monday 13 September; see letter to G. H. Darwin, 13 September [1875]. In a letter to Leonard Darwin on 14 September 1875, Henrietta Emma Litchfield commented: ‘A Russian ornithologist forced his way in accompanied by an English ditto as keeper’ (DAR 258: 1646).

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

0.1 Southampton] above del ‘Down, | Beckenham, Kent.’
1.1 home] interl
1.3 (i.e. Monday)] interl
1.5 leaves] altered from ‘leves’
1.6 about] interl

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