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From John Lubbock   8 December 1868

15, Lombard Street. E.C.

8 Dec. 1868

Dear Mr Darwin

I am much obliged for your kind enquiries after Lady Lubbock1 who is I am thankful to say going on as well as possible.

Thanks also for the Pamphlets.2 That on relationship is very interesting. I have hinted at the same line of argument in my paper on the Primitive Condition of man, & went more into it in my lecture on marriage among savages.3

I quite believe that some of these curious habits are relics of even more degraded barbarism.

I will bring you the £2.10 next time I see you.

Does Mr Allen subscribe to the school?4

I have a bad cold & am more than usually stupid today, but otherwise feel no evil effects of the election.5

Believe me, dear Mr Darwin | Yours most sincerely | John Lubbock

2
The pamphlets have not been identified.
3
Lubbock refers to his paper ‘On the origin of civilization and the primitive condition of man’ (Lubbock 1867) and to one of four lectures, ‘On savages’, given in June 1868 at the Royal Institution (Proceedings of the Royal Institution of Great Britain 5 (1866–9): 198).
4
CD recorded a contribution of £2 from Lubbock in his Down Coal and Clothing Club account book (Down House MS). The original amount recorded was £2 1s., but the ‘1s.’ was overwritten as ‘0s.’. The next entry, for Henry Lubbock, is for £1 1s., but in this case the ‘1s.’ was originally ‘0s.’ CD also recorded a contribution of £2 2s. for ‘F. Allen’ (Frederick Allen). It is not known whether Allen also subscribed to the National School for boys at Down.
5
Lubbock had been a candidate for the Liberal party in the district of West Kent in the recent parliamentary election, but was not elected (The Times, 26 November 1868, p. 10).

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-6494,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-6494