To T. H. Huxley   25 November [1859]

Ilkley Wells House | Otley Yorkshire

Nov. 25th

My dear Huxley

I rejoice beyond measure at Lecture.1 I shall be at home in a fortnight, when I could send you splendid folio coloured drawings of Pigeons.2 Would this be in time? If not I think I could write to my servant & have them sent to you.— If I do not hear I shall understand that about 15 or 16 days will be in time.—

I have had a kind yet slashing letter against me from poor dear old Sedgwick, “who has laughed till his sides ached at my Book”3 Phillips is cautious but decidedly, I fear, hostile.—4

Hurrah for Lecture it is grand!

In Haste | C. Darwin

1
Huxley had apparently completed plans to deliver a lecture on CD’s theory at the Royal Institution of Great Britain (see letter from J. D. Hooker, [21 November 1859], and letter to J. D. Hooker, [22 November 1859]). The lecture was delivered on 10 February 1860 (T. H. Huxley 1860).
2
At his lecture, Huxley exhibited skulls and illustrations of various breeds of domestic pigeons and discussed CD’s theory of their common origin from the wild rock pigeon (T. H. Huxley 1860,p. 197). See letter to T. H. Huxley, 16 December [1859]. The coloured drawings to which CD refers came from Eaton 1858. See also letter to T. H. Huxley, 13 December [1859].
4
John Phillips’s letter has not been found. CD had sent him a presentation copy of Origin (see letters to John Phillips, 11 November [1859] and 26 November [1859]).

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-2554,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-2554