Ɛpsilon

From Charles Lyell   9 May 1863

53 Harley St.

May 9. 1863

My dear Darwin

I am just returned from 3 days visit to Osborne— The Queen had been told that the only part of my book which she would understand was the Lake-dwellings, but I found that the only part she really had read was about you & your system, & plenty of questions it had suggested which I hope I answered well.1

Ever most truly yrs in haste | Cha Lyell

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1
Osborne House on the Isle of Wight was built for Queen Victoria. Lyell’s The geological evidences of the antiquity of man with remarks on theories of the origin of species by variation (C. Lyell 1863) was published early in 1863 (see also Correspondence vol. 11, letter to Charles Lyell, 6 March [1863]). Lyell discussed Swiss and Irish lake dwellings in chapter 2, and CD’s theory of the origin of species by natural selection and its bearing on the development of humans in chapters 21 to 24.

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-4149F,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-4149F