Ɛpsilon

To John Murray   29 April [1869]1

Down. | Beckenham | Kent. S.E.

Ap. 29th

My dear Sir

Some of the Ladies took off the cover of Quarterly & burnt it, & I had no idea who sent it. I thank you sincerely for the present. The article by Wallace is inimitably good & it is a great triumph that such an article shd. appear in the Quarterly, & will make the B. of O. & Owen gnash their teeth.2 My neighbour, Sir J. Lubbock,3 who had no idea who wrote it, was very much struck with the article, as extraordinarily well done.—

I am delighted to hear of sale of Fritz Müller.4

It is good news that you will print 2000 copies of Origin at 14s, for I think I have brought it up to present standard of Science, as the cost of 6 weeks work.

I am making slow, but sure progress with my present book.—5

Thanks for your kind enquiries about my health: my horse rolled over me & hurt me rather seriously, but I have made a surprisingly quick recovery.6

My dear Sir | Yours very sincerely | C. Darwin

1
The year is established by the relationship between this letter and the letter from John Murray, 28 April [1869].
2
The Quarterly Review was published by John Murray; he had evidently sent the issue containing an anonymous review by Alfred Russel Wallace that discussed CD’s theory of natural selection ([Wallace] 1869b; see letter from John Murray, 28 April [1869]). CD also refers to the bishop of Oxford, Samuel Wilberforce, and Richard Owen, both notable opponents of CD’s theory. The ‘Ladies’ would have been Emma Darwin, Henrietta Darwin, and Elizabeth Darwin; it is not known why they burned the cover.
5
CD refers to Origin 5th ed. and to Descent.

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

0.1 Beckenham] before del ‘Bromley.’
1.2 Wallace] ‘W’ over ‘L’

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-6718,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-6718