From Roland Trimen   [21] August [1871]1

71, Guildford Street | London W.C.

Monday, Augt. 20th.

My dear Mr. Darwin,

I have been detained longer than I had expected to be on my way back from Scotland, a sister having kept me for a week in Worcestershire.2

If it would suit you, I propose to call on you at Haredene either on Wednesday or Friday next;3 and if I do not hear anything from you to dissuade me, propose to reach you by the train arriving at Gomshall at 12.35 on Wednesday.

I shall not be staying at Albury now, but was doing so just before I wrote to you. It would have been very delightful if you had then been there, as I was staying at the very next house to Haredene, & so should probably have had more than one opportunity of meeting you.

There is a very convenient evening train back to London from Gomshall; so pray don’t think that I shall be inconvenienced by taking a return ticket.

Ever faithfully yours, | Roland Trimen.

1
The year is established by the relationship between this letter and the letter from Roland Trimen, 26 July 1871 (see n. 2, below). In 1871, 20 August was a Sunday, not a Monday; Trimen presumably wrote ‘20’ in error.
2
Trimen had attended the Edinburgh meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science (see letter from Roland Trimen, 26 July 1871 and n. 3). The sister has not been identified.
3
The Darwins stayed at Haredene, Albury, Surrey, from 28 July to 25 August 1871 (CD’s ‘Journal’ (Appendix II)); see also letter to Roland Trimen, 27 July 1871.

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-7915,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-7915