Ɛpsilon

From T. H. Farrer   15 December 1870

3, Gloucester Terrace, | Regent’s Park.

15 Dec/70

My dear Mr Darwin,

I humbly cry Peccavi. The fact is I sent off from Abinger your books which I had there, and quite forgot to get out and send others which I had been keeping here.

Sprengel with several others shall go this morning to Cumberland Place.—1

I saw Miss Darwin there and told her she ought to be ashamed of being seen about, whilst the book is not yet to be seen.2

Sincerely yours | T H Farrer

C Darwin Esq FRS.

1
Farrer had borrowed, among other books, CD’s copy of Christian Konrad Sprengel’s Das entdeckte Geheimniss der Natur im Bau und in der Befruchtung der Blumen (The secret of nature discovered in the structure and fertilisation of flowers; Sprengel 1793); see Correspondence vol. 17, letter from T. H. Farrer, 13 October 1869. Farrer’s country residence was Abinger Hall near Dorking. One Cumberland Place, London, was the home of Hensleigh Wedgwood, CD’s cousin and brother-in-law.
2
Henrietta Emma Darwin had been involved in reading the manuscript of Descent (see letter to H. E. Darwin, [8 February 1870]).

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-7391,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-7391