To John William Lubbock   [16 January 1846]1

Down

Friday

Dear Sir John

I cannot forbear sending you our cordial thanks for the kind manner in which you have acceded to all our wishes about the little piece of land. If you were to feel how exposed we are to every wind under Heaven, you would understand our strong wish to have one sheltered walk, and I look forward to considerable amusement in tending & pruning the trees.

Pray believe me | dear Sir John | Your’s very faithfully | C. Darwin

1
In an agreement with J. W. Lubbock dated 12 January 1846 (DAR 210.15), CD agreed to pay a rent of £1 12s. annually for a term of 21 years for 112 acres of land adjoining the Down House property. CD further agreed to plant the land with ‘Underwood, Shrubs and Trees’ and to construct a fence. The famous sandwalk, CD’s ‘thinking path’, is in this strip (see Atkins 1974, pp. 25–6).

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

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Please cite as “DCP-LETT-942,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-942