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To Octavian Blewitt   27 March [1860]1

Down Bromley Kent

March 27th.

Mr Darwin presents his compliments to the Secretary & is sorry to say that from the state of his health & other circumstances he must decline the honour of acting as Steward at the Annual Dinner of the Literary Fund.—2

1
The year is established from the date on the file of correspondence in which this letter was archived.
2
Blewitt was secretary of the Royal Literary Fund, an institution that gave financial support to writers; the annual dinner was the fund’s principal means of raising money (Janet Adam Smith, ‘A short history’, Royal Literary Fund, History, https://www.rlf.org.uk/home/our-history/ (accessed 20 August 2019)). In 1860, the dinner took place on 16 May (The Times, 17 May 1860, p. 12).

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-2733F,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-2733F