Ɛpsilon

To W. B. Tegetmeier   28 September [1869]1

Down. | Beckenham | Kent. S.E.

Sept. 28. Tuesday

My dear Sir

I am very much obliged. I write in haste, to say that I will send our Carrier on Thursday morning to the Field office, as that will be very much the safest plan.—2 But if you send them by Railway pray inform me to what Station addressed, as we have now several stations & the poor creatures may be left long uncared for.—3 Please put a handful of grain in Basket

[A postscript expresses the hope that the recipient will be able to answer a question.]

incomplete4

1
The year is established by the style of the address, with ‘Bromley’ crossed through and ‘Beckenham’ written in, which CD used between April 1869 and May 1871; during this period, 28 September was on a Tuesday only in 1869.
2
George Snow operated a carrier service on Thursdays between Down and London (Post Office directory for the six home counties 1870). Tegetmeier was an editor of the Field with offices on The Strand, London.
3
The railway station at Orpington, four miles from Down House, had opened in 1868 (see Correspondence vol. 16, letter to W. D. Fox, 14 May [1868]). CD had been corresponding with Tegetmeier about plumage in young chickens and had recently declined Tegetmeier’s offer to lend him some Polish chickens. See letter from W. B. Tegetmeier, 20 July 1869, and letters to W. B. Tegetmeier, 21 July [1869] and 25 August 1869.
4
The original letter is complete and is described in the sale catalogue as being two and a half pages long. The first page, up to ‘Please put a’, has been transcribed from a facsimile; the rest of the sentence is from Christie’s transcription.

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

0.1 Beckenham] before del ‘Bromley.’
1.2 very much] interl
1.4 stations] interl

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-6915F,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-6915F