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To Robert Patterson   21 August [1854]

DOWN, FARNBOROUGH, KENT

Aug. 21 [1854]1

DEAR SIR:—

I have now gone through all the cirripedes in the house, and I find some half dozen specimens (including some bottles) belonging to poor Thompson.2 None of these are of much value, excepting as being (at least some of them) rare as Irish.

I have also a few M.S. notes. Will you be so kind as to say how I shall send them. They are rather too heavy & being glass not fit to go by post. and they are not worth the carriage of so long a journey. Is there anywhere in London where they could lie till other objects accumulated? I am sorry to cause this trouble but would be much obliged if you could send me a line. Unfortunately I cannot say positively that I shall be at Liverpool;3 otherwise that probably would have been a good way of transmitting the specimens.

Pray believe me | Dear Sir | Yours sincerely | C. DARWIN

1
The date as given in Praeger 1935, p. 713.
3
The forthcoming meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, which was held in Liverpool, 20–7 September. CD had originally planned to attend but changed his mind and did not go.

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-1579,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-1579