To W. D. Fox   8 May [1858]

Down Bromley Kent

May 8th

My dear Fox

I send by this Post Dr. Lane’s Book, which you can keep as long as you like.1

I enjoyed your little visit extremely; & short as it was, you won golden opinions from the members of the Family there.—2 After you went, I thought of half-a-dozen subjects, which I shd. have much liked to have talked over with you.— I was an ungrateful dog not to have thanked you for all your several letters on Turkey chicks &c &c: and this, moreover, was the most serious kind of ingratitude; for it was ingratitude for favours to come; for I shall be very curious to hear about the Kite & Turkey-chicks by themselves.3 If you make the experiment, when the Hen is present, pray describe how far off the chicks run from her before they squat.

I got splendidly well the few last days at Moor Park, & walked one day two miles out & back; & I am now hard at work again as usual.—

Whenever you write, do tell me, whether you got your Hoes.

Farewell my good & dear Friend | Yours most truly | C. Darwin

Mem. if ever you see a Dun, even with only dorsal stripe, enquire colour of dam & sire: I have not been able even in one case to ascertain how Duns appear.—4

1
Lane 1857. CD and Fox had frequently corresponded about hydropathy, and it was Fox who first suggested that CD try the water-cure (see Correspondence vol. 4, letters to W. D. Fox, 6 February [1849] and 7 [July 1849]).
2
On 27 April 1858, Fox recorded in his diary: ‘Went to Moor Park to see Charles Darwin, who is at Dr Lane’s Hydropathic Establishment … Spent day there.’ (Fox family deposit, Darwin Archive, CUL). In DAR 205.11 (2): 108, there is a note dated ‘May 5/58’ describing the nest-building instincts of the golden wren (gold-crest) and giving Fox as the source.

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

0.2 8] over ‘7’
2.7 when … present, 2.8] above del ‘with mother’
2.8 from her] interl

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-2270,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-2270