The date is established by the month and year of publication of the last published item in the list of books in the letter, Miller 1858 (see n. 4, below).
Benjamin Jowett’s Epistles of St. Paul to the Thessalonians, Galatians, Romans (Jowett 1855). The Down carrier service, operated by George Snow, went to London early on Thursdays (Post Office directory of the six home counties 1851). The letter may have been sent to Mudie’s Lending Library, which CD occasionally used (see Correspondence vol. 15, letter to T. H. Huxley, 7 January [1867]); he was also a member of the London Library (Correspondence vol. 3, letter to J. D. Hooker, 19 March [1845]).
CD added Hugh Miller’s My schools & schoolmasters; or, the story of my education (Miller 1854) to his list of books read on 18 July 1855 (Correspondence 4, Appendix IV 128: 11).
The cruise of the Betsey (Miller 1858), published in May 1858, was an account of Scottish geology, landscape, and current affairs (see Publishers’ Circular, 15 May 1858, p. 204). Emma Darwin made a note in her diary on 31 December 1858, ‘cruise of Betsy Hugh Miller’.
CD listed the novel The history of the Marquis de Cressy ([Riccoboni] 1765) in his list of books read in September 1856 (Correspondence 4, Appendix IV, 128: 21).
Will return Benjamin Jowett’s Epistles of St Paul (Jowett 1855) and requests several books, of which the latest is Hugh Miller’s Cruise of the Betsey (Miller 1858).
Yale University, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library (James Marshall and Marie-Louise Osborn Collection: Edward G. and Hortense R. Levy Autograph Collection, Part 2 (OSB MSS 137) Box 25, folder 1188)