Ɛpsilon

To Richard Kippist   12 May [1868?]1

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

May 12

My dear Sir

I will return on Thursday morning the 4 vols. of the Ibis; & will you be so good as to have ready for Carrier “Jerdon’s Birds of India”, & if this does not consist of four vols. please add Bells British Reptiles or if this not in Library vols. 5 & 6 of the Ibis—2

Yours very faithfully | Ch. Darwin

Might you not send me 5 or 6 vols?3

1
The year is conjectured from the relationship between this letter and the letter to Osbert Salvin, 1 June 1868, where CD said that he had already returned Ibis vol. 2.
2
Ibis was the journal of the British Ornithologists’ Union. CD also refers to Jerdon 1862–4 and T. Bell 1849, both of which are cited in Descent. George Snow ran a carrier service between London and Down every Thursday (Post Office directory of the six home counties 1866, 1870).
3
Borrowers from the library of the Linnean Society were officially limited to two volumes at a time; in 1866, CD had requested a more generous allowance (see Correspondence vol. 14, letters to George Bentham, [July–September 1866], 27 September [1866], and 1 October 1866 and n. 1, and letter from George Bentham, 25 September 1866).

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

1.3 Bells … Library] interl
1.3 the] interl

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-6169A,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-6169A