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To Inland Revenue   [17–21 July 1868?]1

[Freshwater?]2

Dear Sir

The assessment for Income Tax under schedule D3 has been forwarded to me here, where I shall remain on acct of my health for one more month.— I cannot fill up the return for foreig[n] R.4 until I return home, where my account books are locked up.— Can you permit me to delay making a return this long; or if not could you forward this letter to the Commissioner,5 & state that you know what I have stated as cause.

Dear Sir | Yours

Draft

1
The date is conjectured from the date and place assigned to this draft in the Darwin Archive–CUL, and from the dates of CD’s visit to Freshwater on the Isle of Wight in 1868. An unknown hand has written ‘1868’ on this draft and others near it in DAR 96. CD arrived in Freshwater on 17 July 1868, and returned home to Down on 21 August (Emma Darwin’s diary (DAR 242)).
2
The place is conjectured in connection with the date (see n. 1, above).
3
Schedule D was for self-employment and other items not covered by the other schedules (A: land and buildings; B: farming profits; C: public annuities; E: salaries, annuities, and pensions).
4
Possibly ‘foreign royalties’. CD generally waived payment for translations of his work (see Correspondence vol. 15, letter to V. O. Kovalevsky, 16 May [1867], but he did receive payment for some US editions; see Correspondence vol. 8, letter to Asa Gray, 22 May [1860] and n. 2.
5
There were several commissioners at the Inland Revenue Office in London (Post Office London directory 1868, p. 100).

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

1.1 for Income Tax] interl above del illeg
1.2 shall remain] above del ‘intend to remain’
1.2 one more month] after del ‘exactly’
1.4 Can] after del ‘Will’
1.4 making a return] interl
1.5 Commissioner] after del ‘high’

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-6278,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-6278