Ɛpsilon

From C. L. Sutherland   12 September 1872

West Market Place | Cirencester.

12th. September 72.

Dear Mr. Darwin.

According to promise I sent for a copy of my friend Ayraults book on Mule Breeding in the Poitou.1 By careful selection a most extraordinary—in fact an almost abnormal race of Asses has been produced, which are kept solely for breeding Mules.

I shall be shortly writing to Ayrault & I know he will be delighted to hear that you are the recipient of one of his books, a few of which he gave me for distribution when I was at Niort in May last.2

I hope you are as well as when I had the pleasure of seeing you in June last & with my compliments to Mrs. Darwin3 | I remain | Yours very truly | Charles L Sutherland

I have thought that possibly the enclosed photograph of our mutual friend Tegetmeier & myself examining a pigeon Voyageur Belge, might amuse you.4

1
There is a lightly annotated copy of Ayrault 1867 in the Darwin Library–CUL (see Marginalia 1: 24).
2
Eugène Ayrault lived in Niort, a town in Western France.
3
Sutherland visited Down in June 1872 (see letter from C. L. Sutherland, [9–19 June 1872] and n. 2).
4
The photograph of Sutherland with William Bernhard Tegetmeier appears in Correspondence vol. 6, facing p. 193 (see also Richardson 1916, facing p. 63). Pigeon voyageur: carrier pigeon (French).

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-8518,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-8518