Ɛpsilon

To [?]   22 [March? 1867]1

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

Friday 22d

Dear Sir

I am greatly obliged for your most kind offer, which, however, I will decline, as I am a good deal out of health, & as I have passed in a work which is now printing the part about Dogs.2

You are, also, probably not aware that this place is six miles of hilly road from Bromley.3

With my very sincere thanks for your kind offer, I remain | Dear Sir | Yours faithfully & obliged | Charles Darwin

1
The recipient has not been identified. The month is conjectured, and the year is established, by the printing of Variation having begun before March 1867, and the fact that the discussion of dogs appeared in the first chapter (see n. 2, below). In 1867, the 22nd fell on a Friday in February, March, and November.
2
CD received the first proof-sheets of Variation on 1 March 1867 (CD’s ‘Journal’ (Correspondence vol. 15, Appendix II)); by 26 March he had had proofs of 180 pages (see letter to V. O. Kovalevsky, 26 March [1867]), which would have included the section on dogs (Variation 1: 15–43).
3
The closest railway station to CD’s home was in Bromley.

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-5453,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-5453