Ɛpsilon

To John Murray   27 August [1845]

Down Bromley Kent

Aug 27th.—

My dear Sir

I returned everything to the Printers on Tuesday night.— I am much obliged for your note: the method by which you propose to pay me the 150£ will suit me, and I will acknowledge the note whenever I receive it.—

Will you please particularly to see, that one of my 12 copies is sent not later than Monday to Mr Lyell at 16 Hart St.; as he wishes to take it to America with him on Tuesday.—

Please to send the other 11 copies to Mr. Bain’s 1. Haymarket my Bookseller & Binder (marking outside copies for Mr. Darwin) not later than Tuesday or Wednesday night.

With respect to the Woodcuts: that of the Lizard to be put back to Mr Lyell’s Elements: four of them are your property, viz. that at p. 15/ p. 137/ p. 236/ p. 246/.1 All the remaining ones, please see carefully packed & returned to me, (if done with by Tuesday with the Books to Mr. Bain; if not then done with, directed to me at the Geological Soc: Somerset House; marked “not to be forwarded”.): Should you ever want a reprint; I can have no doubt, that I can borrow them from Mrs Smith & Elder again.—2

I am much obliged for the pleasant manner, in which you have transacted the business with me.—

I beg as you as an especial favour, that should my volume sell well, that you will take the trouble to inform me; both to gratify my vanity, as Author, & what I care equally for, that I may know, that you have had no cause to repent undertaking this little work.

Believe ⁠⟨⁠me my d⁠⟩⁠ear Sir | Yours very faithfully | C. Darwin J. Murray Esqre P.S. Should you ever wish to publish old Books of Travel; I strongly recommend you to think of Hearne’s Travels,3 (strongly praised by Wordsworth);4 they are to my mind admirable & little known.— Drury’s Madagascar5 is also little known for its merits—

1
Three of the original woodcuts for the first edition, which John Murray had presumably obtained from Henry Colburn, with one further woodcut of the scissor-beak bird (Rhynchops nigra, a synonym of Rynchops niger, the black skimmer) made at Murray’s expense (see letter to John Murray, [31 May 1845]).
2
The remaining woodcuts were borrowed from Smith, Elder & Co., the publishers of Coral reefs and Volcanic islands. See letters to John Murray, [31 May 1845] and [27 July 1845].
3
Hearne 1795.
4
In the headnote to ‘The complaint of a forsaken Indian woman’, which appeared originally in William Wordsworth’s Lyrical ballads (1798).
5
Drury 1729.

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

0.3 My] ‘M’ over ‘D’
2.2 St.; as] semicolon added; ‘as’ over ‘—’
3.1 my Bookseller & Binder 3.2] interl
3.2 Mr. Darwin] above del ‘me’
3.2 Tuesday] after del ‘Wednes’
4.3 packed] interl
6.4 this] after del ‘my’

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-908,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-908