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To Smith, Elder and Company   5 March [1863]

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

March 5th

Dear Sir

I am much obliged for your letter & accounts.1 As I am sure that you would offer the full amount of what is fair, & as it will save all future accounts I will gladly accept the 5£, & you can at your convenience send me a cheque for that & balance of £11:s13. d1. Will you be so good as to send me a proper form of receipt, to which I will affix a stamp & my signature.—

Please remember that you have to deduct small enclosed account.—2

One of my Boys has the common passion for collecting Postage stamps:3 he tells me that you issue some peculiar kinds:4 I know not in the least what they are & perhaps they are for India5 (at least I have never met with them) & can only be sold in number; but if you have odd copies & could enclose one or two of each kind deducting amount from your cheque, I shd. be glad to please my Boy, but of course you must not think of this for a minute if in in anyway inconvenien⁠⟨⁠t.⁠⟩⁠

Pray believe me | Dear Sir | Yours very faithfully | Charles Darwin

Postmark: MR 5 63

2
The enclosure has not been found. See letter to Smith, Elder and Company, 14 January [1863].
4
From 1857, firms were given the opportunity of having their names and addresses embossed on a circular collar placed around standard issue British postage stamps. Smith, Elder and Company was one of the first companies to make use of this facility, registering their collar in October 1857. It consisted of a plain circular band forming a complete ring around the stamp, with the name of the firm on a plain cartouche above the stamp, and the address on a similar cartouche below (Huggins 1970, pp. 167–70).
5
Smith, Elder and Company were also East India agents (Post Office London directory 1863).

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

1.2 the full amount of] interl
1.3 gladly] interl
3.1 has] altered from ‘have’
3.3 (at least … them)] interl

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-4025,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-4025