From John Murray   30 January [1862]1

Albemarle St

Jany. 30

My Dear Sir

I thank you for your very obliging note—introducing to me Mr W H. Bates. What you tell me of him interests me much2   I shall be very happy to make his personal acquaintance if he be in London—& am ready to receive as much of his MS. as he has prepared—as soon as convenient. I cannot of course proceed farther until I have seen a considerable portion of it—to form an opinion of its character & attractiveness. The description you give leads me to form high expectations & if & an actual inspection will enable me to make proposals for the publication wch, I hope, may meet the Authors views

Will you add to your kindness by informing Mr Bates that I am at home daily with the rarest exceptions from 10 to 4 or 5. (Saty only until 2) but that if it be at all inconvenient to call he has only to send his MS. wch I will take the utmost care of & treat as a confidential communication

I thought it wd never do to keep the orchids for your weekly carrier & I hope they arrived in good order3   I take it you & Lyell will be out about the same time   He has only 2 Chapters to finish4

I am My Dear Sir | Your obliged & faithful | John Murray

Charles Darwin Esq

1
The year is established by the relationship to the letter from H. W. Bates, 25 January 1862 and to the letter to John Murray, 28 January [1862].
3
Murray may refer to proofs of the woodcuts for Orchids, which CD had requested in his letter to Murray of 21 October [1861] (Correspondence vol. 9). George Snow, the Down coal merchant, operated a carrier service to and from London every Thursday (Post Office directory of the six home counties 1862).
4
Charles Lyell was preparing Antiquity of man (C. Lyell 1863a), which was published by John Murray on 6 February 1863 (C. Lyell 1863b, p. vii). Orchids was published on 15 May 1862 (see ‘Journal’ (Correspondence vol. 10, Appendix II)).

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-3420,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-3420