Ɛpsilon

From D. F. Nevill   17 [April 1875]1

Dangstein, Petersfield

17th

My dear Sir

I hope to be in London on or about the 22nd and it would afford me the greatest pleasure if we could meet   Dr Hooker who was here a short time ago told me you were in London2   I would call on you any time you could appoint or would you pay me a visit—I am generally busy from 1–30 till 3—

Yours most truly | D Nevill

I live at 45 Charles street | Berkeley Square

1
The month and year are established by the salutation, which indicates that this letter predates Nevill and CD’s first meeting on 4 May 1875 (Emma Darwin’s diary (DAR 242; after meeting him in person, Nevill would have written, ‘Dear Mr Darwin’), and by the times of CD’s visits to London. Nevill did not live at 45 Charles Street before 1873, so the letter cannot date from CD and Nevill’s correspondence in the 1860s. An opportunity to meet might have occurred in December 1874, when CD was in London, but Nevill’s letter from Dangstein on 26 [December 1874] (see Correspondence vol. 22) gives no indication that they had just missed seeing one another. The only other time that CD was in London between the resumption of their correspondence in September 1874 and their meeting on 4 May 1875 was April 1875 (see n. 2, below).
2
Joseph Dalton Hooker was a frequent visitor to Dangstein (Nevill 1919, p. 66). CD was in London from 31 March until 12 April 1875 (see ‘Journal’ (Appendix II)).

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-8135,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-8135