Ɛpsilon

To M. C. Lloyd   4 August [1869]1

Down. | Beckenham | Kent. S.E.

Aug. 4th

My dear Miss Lloyd

I have thought that you wd. like to see the enclosed letter from Mr B. Dawkins, who has evidently been much pleased by his visit, though in some geological respects not so interesting as he expected.2 There is something wonderfully curious in coming across remains of an old savage progenitor, with their ground-down teeth.—3

Pray believe me | yours truly obliged | Ch. Darwin

1
The year is established by reference to William Boyd Dawkins’s visit to north Wales; see n.2, below.
2
Dawkins visited Lloyd’s family home at Rhagatt near Corwen in north Wales from 29 to 30 July 1869. He was investigating the site where a group of prehistoric bones, sent on to him by CD, had been discovered. (Dawkins 1870, Lucas 2007, p. 326; see also letter to W. B. Dawkins, 19 July [1869], and letter to M. C. Lloyd, [24 July 1869] and n. 2.) Dawkins’s letter to CD has not been found, but presumably reported the initial results of his investigation; see n. 3, below.
3
Dawkins commented in his later published account of the excavations that all the adult human teeth discovered at Rhagatt were ground perfectly flat (Dawkins 1870, p. 444).

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

0.1 Beckenham.] before del ‘Bromley.’

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-6852,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-6852