To Williams & Norgate   4 March [1861]1

Down Bromley Kent

March 4th

Dear Sir

I am not the less obliged to you for getting me Ferguson,2 that on my telling an acquaintance that I could not purchase a copy he sent me his own as a present.—3

It is not much of a loss, but if you could dispose of copy sent, for a lesser price, I would return it you.— But this is not likely, if I do not hear I will understand in a few days that I must keep it or rather give it away.

Yours sincerely | C. Darwin

1
The year is established by the relationship between this letter, the letter from W. A. Wooler, 4 February 1861, and the letter to W. B. Tegetmeier, 25 February [1861] (Correspondence vol. 9); also, according to his journal, CD was working on chapter 7 of Variation, ‘Fowls’ (1: 225–75), from mid-March 1861 (see Correspondence vol. 9, Appendix II). Ferguson 1854 (see n. 2, below) is cited in Variation 1: 248 n.
2
Ferguson 1854 (Ferguson’s illustrated series of rare and prize poultry); there is an annotated copy in the Darwin Library–CUL (see Marginalia 1: 227–9).
3
The acquaintance may have been William Alexander Wooler; see letter from W. A. Wooler, 4 February 1861 (Correspondence vol. 9).

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

2.1 of a loss] ‘of’ interl

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-3082F,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-3082F