From B. J. Sulivan   2 October [1862]1

Board of Trade. S.W.

Oct 2.

My dear Darwin

I am indeed sorry to hear such an account of Mrs. Darwin & your family.2 I can answer for myself and (I think for Wickham & Mellersh) that I should be very glad indeed to run down to you for a night, probably the week after next would suit Wickham best as he will then be in Lodgings in Town.3 I will ask them both and let you know—but it will be after Sixth of this month as Wickham does not come to us till that day and I do not know where a letter would catch him.

I had intended volunteering to run down to you this autumn for a day or two after the other people returned here to work, & I should be free for a day when I wished to take one. But when I knew Wickham was coming I thought it a nice chance for us to meet.

Believe me my dear Darwin | Yours very sincerely | B. J. Sulivan

1
The year is established by reference to the visit to Down House on 21 October 1862, of Sulivan, John Clements Wickham, and Arthur Mellersh (see n. 3, below).
2
CD’s letter has not been found. Horace Darwin had been ill early in 1862, and Emma and Leonard Darwin had been ill with scarlet fever during the summer (see Emma Darwin’s diary (DAR 242)).
3
Sulivan, Mellersh, and Wickham had served with CD on board HMS Beagle during the surveying voyage of 1831–6. In his letter to CD of 27 September [1862], Sulivan suggested that CD and Mellersh might visit him in London early in October while Wickham, who had emigrated to Australia in 1842, was staying with him. According to Emma Darwin’s diary (DAR 242), Sulivan, Mellersh, and Wickham visited Down House on 21 October 1862.

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-3749,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-3749