To Chauncey Wright   31 August [1872]1

Down, | Beckenham, Kent.

Aug. 31st

My dear Sir

Very many thanks for your long & interesting letter.2 I hope some time you will be able to utilise all the close thought you have applied to the subject, by bringing in your ideas into one of your essays.—

I write now to say how very glad I shall be to see you here.— Any day next week except Saturday would suit us perfectly well. But if you are going to stay sometime longer in London, I would suggest any day in week beginning on Sept. 9th— I make this suggestion solely on account of my son George whom you saw in America & who wd like to meet you here, & who will be away from home this coming week.—3

I trust that you will come & dine & sleep here; for the afternoon from 2o to 4o is always my bad time when my head fails me; & indeed at no time can I converse long with anyone.— Your best plan will be to come by the train which leaves Charing Cross at 5o 5’ for Orpington Station (on the S.E. Ry.)4 which is 4 miles from this house, & then you can return next morning to London.— We shd. thus see each other much more pleasantly than by a mere call, as you propose.—

My dear Sir | yours sincerely | Ch. Darwin

Please let me hear when you will come.—

The year is established by the relationship between this letter and the letter from Chauncey Wright, 29 August 1872.
Emma Darwin’s diary (DAR 242) records that Wright visited Down on 4 September 1872. George Howard Darwin had met Wright in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in October 1871; he had travelled to America with Francis Darwin and several friends (see Correspondence vol. 19, letter from Chauncey Wright, 11 October 1871 and n. 8).

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

2.1 next week] interl
3.2 always] above del ‘usually’

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-8497,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-8497