To John Lubbock   12 [August 1857]1

Down.

12th

Dear Lubbock

I should like you very much to meet my best of old friends, Prof. Henslow & I have been thinking that perhaps you would come & dine here (if not engaged) on Thursday at 714, for I am sure you will forgive me, if tired, going & sitting by myself for 12 an hour after dinner.2 It is an intolerable evil my being so easily done up.— you may remember the last time you dined here I was not able to appear; but if you will come & take chance, I think you would like Henslow.—

We had intended asking you to persuade Mrs. Lubbock to come with you, but my wife was quite suddenly called to London by dangerous illness of a relation.—3 & I fear there is hardly a chance of her returning tomorrow by the Omnibus, but I mean to have dinner late for the chance. Do not trouble yourself to answer this, but come if you can & are so inclined.

Ever yours | C. Darwin

1
See the letter to Lubbock, 11 August [1857], n. 1, for the basis of the date. It is further supported by the reference to Emma Darwin having been called to London because of an illness in the family (see n. 3, below).
2
See the letter to Lubbock, 11 August [1857]. John Stevens Henslow was to visit Down on Thursday, 13 August 1857.
3
Emma Darwin recorded in her diary on 11 August 1857: ‘I came to London to Eliza’. Sarah Elizabeth (Eliza) Wedgwood, Emma’s cousin, died one month later, on 11 September 1857.

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

2.3 &] over ‘I’

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-2396,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-2396