Ɛpsilon

To T. C. Eyton   8 June [1871]1

Down, | Beckenham, Kent.

June 8th

Dear Eyton

It was very kind of you to write.2 I think the story must be a cock & a Bull, as Swinhoe has worked the Nat. Hist. of Formosa so well, & wd surely have heard of so strange a case. But if the writer is not old & seems to you credible, I shd. be grateful for the extract. I could send it to Swinhoe who is now in China.3

I sincerely hope that you keep well & strong. It is many years since we met.—4 My health is always very poor, & I can do nothing but live the quietest life & work a little in natural History.

Believe me dear Eyton | with never-failing pleasant remembrances of old days | Yours very sincerely | Ch. Darwin

1
The year is established by the form of the letterhead. CD used stationery with ‘Down, Beckenham, Kent’ printed in the upper right-hand corner of the paper from May 1871 to January 1872.
2
Eyton’s letter has not been found.
3
The ‘strange case’ has not been identified. Robert Swinhoe had often provided CD with information on the natural history of China and had recently returned to that country to take up a new post (see letter from Robert Swinhoe, 14 March 1871).
4
CD and Eyton had become friends as students at Cambridge in 1828; Eyton had later helped CD prepare descriptions of birds from the Beagle voyage (ODNB).

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-7809,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-7809