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To Skeffington Poole   20 October [1858]1

Down Bromley Kent

Oct 20th

Sir

I write merely to thank you for so kindly taking the trouble to acknowledge my note, and for your promise of any information in your power.2 By native horses I meant any with which you were acquainted, and more especially the Kattywar Breed.3

Sir | Yours faithfully & obliged | Ch.Darwin

P.S | I have seen it stated that the Kattywar horses are stumpy or cob-built; but I notice that Col. Curtis4 incidentally speaks of them as rather long-legged or lanky & for Indian Horses tall. How is this, would you be so good as to tell me.

I would also ask whether you ever happened to notice any dark stripe on the head, or near the eye?

1
The date is established by the relationship between this letter and the letter to Skeffington Poole, 13 October [1858] (Correspondence vol. 7).
2
CD refers to his letter to Poole of 13 October [1858] (Correspondence vol. 7); Poole’s acknowledgement has not been found. The questions that CD enclosed with his letter to Poole have not been found, but may have been similar to those enclosed with the letter to Hugh Falconer, 23 November 1857 (Correspondence vol. 6); see also this volume, Supplement, letter from Skeffington Poole, [21 October 1858]. CD cited Poole for information in Origin, pp. 163, 164, 166, and Variation 1: 58, 59, 2: 43.
3
Kathiawar (Kattywar) is a peninsula mostly in Gujarat state, India. Kattywar horses are now generally known as Kathiawari horses.

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

3.2 incidentally] interl

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-2346F,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-2346F