To ?   7 April [1871]1

Down. | Beckenham | Kent. S.E.

April 7

My dear Sir

I write one line to thank you for your assistance & to beg you, when next you meet Dr. Laycock, to return him my very sincere thanks for all the references.—2 I will endeavour to get the works referred to.— I possess owing to Dr Laycock’s great kindness Brain & mind;3 but absence from home has prevented my as yet consulting the passages.—4

Yours very sincerely | Ch. Darwin

1
The year is established by the form of the address and the month. CD used this form of address, with ‘Bromley’ crossed out and ‘Beckenham’ added by hand, from April 1869 to May 1871. During this period, he was away from home shortly before 7 April only in 1871 (see CD’s ‘Journal’ (Appendix II)).
2
No letter containing references from Thomas Laycock has been found.
3
CD refers to Laycock 1860, which he cited in Expression, pp. 339 n. 33 and 340 n. 36. He also cited Laycock 1839 on p. 339 n. 33 and Laycock 1840 on pp. 339 n. 33, 342 n. 41, and 343 n. 45.
4
CD visited his brother, Erasmus Alvey Darwin, in London from 1 to 5 April 1871 (CD’s ‘Journal’ (Appendix II)).

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

0.1 Beckenham] before del ‘Bromley.’

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-6102A,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-6102A