Ɛpsilon

From Henry Holland   21 December [1867]1

Brook Street

Decr 21

My dear Charles

The pages I enclose will probably interest you. They are taken from the proceedings of the Manchester Phil. Society, which I received this morning;2 It is now perhaps the best of the Provincial Scientific bodies. I have been a Member of it, for very nearly 60 years.3

I received a few days ago a copy of the attack upon you from the Author; This gives me no clue whatever to his name or nature.4 The nearest approach I make, is that of being very intimate with a friend of his, who fully admits knowing him, but under strict injunction not to disclose him.

I find that very few people have even heard of the volume.

Ever yours affy. | H Holland

Charles Darwin Esqr

1
The year is established by the relationship between this letter and the letter from Henry Holland, 27 January [1868] (Correspondence vol. 16).
2
The enclosure was an article on species of plants that had colonised land cleared for planting at Tatton Park, Cheshire (Hurst and Carter 1867); there is a copy in the Darwin Pamphlet Collection–CUL.
3
The Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society was founded in 1781; for more on its history, see Hayhurst 1967. In the Memoirs of the Literary and Philosophical Society of Manchester, Holland is listed as a corresponding member, elected in 1812 (see, for example, ibid. 3d ser. 2 (1865), Council of the Literary and Philosophical Society of Manchester (1864)).
4
The reference is to The Darwinian theory of the transmutation of species examined by a graduate of the University of Cambridge by Robert Mackenzie Beverley ([Beverley] 1867; see letter to Charles Kingsley, 13 December [1867] and n. 6).

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-5736,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-5736