Ɛpsilon

To W. J. Broderip   [31 August 1842]

12 Upper Gower St

Wednesday Night

My dear Broderip

I have delayed answering your note, in hopes of getting your question answered by Bell, but he started on a tour, I find, before my note could have reached him, so when to expect an answer (if ever) I do not see.— I believe D’Orbigny has described my ‘diabolicus’,1 but I do not know under what name.—2 The colours sometimes vary a little, but my description of the colours of most is not at all exaggerated.— I have some faint recollection of thinking that I had done wrong in calling it a toad, & that it is a toad-like frog.—

We are on the point of moving all our goods & chattel to a house I have purchased3 (ie I wait only for a conveyancer’s opinion on one point to sign & seal) a house in the small village of Down near Farnborough in Kent—a quiet most rustic spot on the chalk.4 It is 16 miles from London Bridge & I hope to be in town pretty often.—

There are 18 acres with the house, which is tolerably good & I have got them very cheap.

Believe me dear Broderip, in haste | Yours very truly | C. Darwin

I meant to have called to have given you my temporary farewell—

1
For CD’s description see Journal of researches, pp. 114–15: ‘ … Diabolicus, for it is a fit toad to preach in the ear of Eve’.
2
Phryniscus nigricans (a synonym of Rhinella spinulosa, the warty toad) is described by both Orbigny (Orbigny 1835–47, 5: 11) and Bell in Reptiles, p. 49.
3
Emma Darwin moved into the house in Down on 14 September 1842 and CD followed on the 17th (‘Journal’; Correspondence vol. 2, Appendix II).
4
A geological formation covering much of south-eastern England.

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

1.2 started] after del ‘has’
2.1 We] ‘W’ over ‘I’
2.2 ie I] ‘I’ over ‘w’
2.4 be] over ‘in’

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-640,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-640