To John Murray   23 April [1871]1

Down. | Beckenham | Kent. S.E.

Ap. 23d

My dear Mr Murray

I am sorry to trouble you with so many notes.—2 You once lent me, as I believe, the first Edit. 1806 of Sir C. Bell’s Anat. of Expression.3 I want very much to see it again for a few days. Would you venture to send it me, either by Post, (if not too large which I forget) or addressed C. Darwin Esqre

Orpington Stn

Kent

☜ Per S.E. Railway

If you fear to send it I must wait till next in London.—

Please tell me how soon you shd. wish for cheap. Edit. of Origin, so that I may arrange my plans & time.4

Yours very sincerely | Ch Darwin

1
The year is established by the reference to Origin 6th ed., which sold for only 7s. 6d., much less than the fifth edition’s price of 14s. Origin 6th ed. was published in February 1872. (Pall Mall Gazette 31 July 1869, p. 16; Freeman 1977.)
2
CD’s last letter to Murray himself was that of 13 April [1871], however, he had also been in correspondence with Murray’s business partner, Robert Francis Cooke (see letter to R. F. Cooke, 22 April [1871].)
3
No other correspondence with Murray concerning Charles Bell’s Anatomy of expression in painting (Bell 1806) has been found. CD first read Bell 1806 in 1840 (see CD’s Reading notebooks, Correspondence vol. 4, Appendix IV); Murray did not become his publisher until 1845. CD’s annotated copy of the third edition, Bell 1844, is in the Darwin Library–CUL. CD stated his preference for the third edition in Expression, p. 2.

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

0.1 Beckenham] before del ‘Bromley.’
1.4 forget)] parenthesis over comma

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-7709,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-7709