Ɛpsilon

From V. O. Kovalevsky   11 October [1870]1

Octob. 11 Evening.

Dear Sir

I hope this note may reach You in time before You leave Down,2 if such should be the case I will pray You to be so kind and send me the four sheets to my adress in London; we leave England only Saturday afternoon. I shall see Mr. Murray an arrange the payment out sending of casts.3

I hope Miss Darwin is going better4

Yours truly | W. Kovalevsky

P.S. In case this note reaches You to late, that is after Saturday, I shall write another time from Berlin, but the safest thing in this case will be to send the sheets under band poste-restante Berlin where I am sure to receive them.—

I received Your letter at ten in the evening and having no stamps I commit the offence (considered impardonable in England) to send it unpaid, that it may go to morrow by the first train.—

Yours | W. K.

CD annotations

Top of letter: ‘31 Bloomby St | Bedford Sqr.’ pencil5
1
The year is established by the relationship between this letter and the letter from V. O. Kovalevsky, 22 November 1870.
2
CD was to leave Down on 13 October 1870 (see ‘Journal’ (Appendix II)).
3
The reference is to corrected proof-sheets of Descent; Kovalevsky intended to translate Descent into Russian, but was ultimately not able to complete the work (see Correspondence vol. 19, letter from V. O. Kovalevsky, 14 March 1871). Kovalevsky also evidently refers to casts (stereotypes) of woodcuts for Descent, and to John Murray. On Kovalevsky’s travels, see the letter from V. O. Kovalevsky, 5 October 1870.
4
Kovalevsky refers to Henrietta Emma or Elizabeth Darwin.
5
Thirty-one Bloomsbury Street, Bedford Square, was Kovalevsky’s London address (letter from V. O. Kovalevsky, 5 September [1870].

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-7342,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-7342