Ɛpsilon

To John Murray   3 October [1861]1

Down. | Bromley. | Kent. S.E.

Oct 3d

My dear Sir

I write in haste to know whether you object to my little Orchid Book being of size of Hutcheson on Dog Breaking, which I think is good size & which I mention because you published it.—2

Do you want ornament for cover???3 I care not myself.—

In Haste | My dear Sir | Yours sincerely | C. Darwin

P.S | I was forced to order Blocks, & fixed this size, as Artist comes on Monday;4 but the page might be large; but I shd prefer little Book not to look pretentious.—

1
Dated by the reference to the publication of Orchids (see letter from John Murray, 23 September 1861).
2
Murray had published William Nelson Hutchinson’s Dog breaking in 1848. There is an annotated copy of the second edition (W. N. Hutchinson 1850) in the Darwin Library–CUL. See also letter to John Murray, 5 October [1861].
4
George Brettingham Sowerby Jr arrived at Down on 7 October 1861 to prepare the illustrations for Orchids (Emma Darwin’s diary).

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

2.1 cover???] ‘???’ over ‘—’
4.2 page] above del ‘type’
4.2 large] after del illeg

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-3275,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-3275