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To Edward William Brayley1   7 February 1845

Down, Kent

Fe. 7th. 1845.

My dear Sir

You have my best wishes for your success in your present application. You are aware that I have never had an opportunity of hearing you lecture, & therefore cannot speak of your qualifications in that line; but I have great pleasure in adding, that I have always been struck by your remarkable powers in acquiring scientific knowledge of varied kinds, & by your extensive reading. I think it will be generally acknowledged, that a capacity of this nature, must be eminently serviceable in teaching a subject of so divesified a nature as Geology.—

Believe me dear Sir | Yours very faithfully | C. Darwin E. W. Brayley Esqe

1
Brayley was applying for the professorship of geology at University College London. His application was not successful and the post went to Andrew Crombie Ramsay in 1847, T. Joyce having taught geology in the interim. See Bellot 1929. This letter was published in a volume of testimonials for Brayley, see Freeman 1977, pp. 63–4.

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-822,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-822