From H. W. Bates   10 September 1868

Royal Geographical Society | 15, Whitehall Place, S.W.

Sept 10 1868

My dear Mr Darwin

On returning from a trip with my children I found your kind invitation.1 Unfortunately I cannot avail myself of it this time, on account of the arrears of work staring me in the face after a brief holiday. I have the 1st number of a new Geographical magazine to bring out in November,2 & manual of Geography in December (I wish they may get it) besides other indispensible work to do.3 So I must work on Sunday & week days for a few weeks.

Yours sincerely | H W Bates

1
CD’s letter to Bates has not been found; the invitation was for a visit to Down on 12 and 13 September 1868 (see letter to J. D. Hooker, [8–10 September 1868]).
2
Bates may be referring to the first volume of Illustrated travels: a record of discovery, geography, and adventure (Bates ed. 1869–74).
3
As assistant secretary of the Royal Geographical Society, Bates regularly edited the Journal and the Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society. Bates may also refer to his article in the third edition of Hints for travellers, though it was not published until 1871 (Bates 1871).The third edition was published in the Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society, which Bates edited. For Bates’s work at the Royal Geographical Society, see Dickinson 1992.

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-6360,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-6360