Ɛpsilon

From George Howard Darwin   [1 February 1870 or earlier]1

14 Arl. St. | Picc.2

My Dear Father,

I went to a horse dealers on Wednesday to see if they had anything that wd suit you, but the man assured me that no London dealer wd allow his horses to go on trial, but he told me the best way wd be to hire a horse from a riding school & go on changing until you were suited.3

I went this mg. to the Grosvenor Riding School—where they keep about fifty horses & I saw there a horse about 14.2 hands up to about 12 stone & wh. was so quiet that it had been ridden by a blind man.

I think the best way wd be for me to take a turn in the park on this or any other of their beasts wh. they think wd be suitable & then you to hire the one or ones I think best for a week or fortnight. I expect you wd have to pay rather higher than the value of the horse as the don’t profess to sell & they say that this beast is of great value to the riding school for timid riders. We can talk over it tomorrow

Your affectionate son | G. H. Darwin

1
The date is established by the relationship between this letter and the letter from G. H. Darwin, [3 February 1870 or earlier], and on the assumption that this letter could not have been written on a Wednesday (2 February 1870 was a Wednesday).
2
Fourteen Arlington Street, Piccadilly.
3
George was trying to find a new horse for CD to replace Tommy, who had thrown CD in April 1869 (letter from G. H. Darwin to H. E. Darwin, [21–2 February 1870] (DAR 251: 2243); Emma Darwin’s diary (DAR 242)).

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-7090,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-7090