Ɛpsilon

To E. F. Lubbock   [after 24 February 1871]1

Down. | Beckenham | Kent. S.E.

Saturday

My dear Lady Lubbock

Very many thanks for the verses just received.2 I am quite delighted that you are well enough to have written them, & thus considering their nature shows much Christian charity on my part.— In earnest I am very glad that your attack, as I infer, has not proved a bad one, for I believe that the measles except with children are no light trifle.—3

Pray believe me | Yours truly obliged | Ch. Darwin

1
The date is established by the relationship between this letter and the letter from E. F. Lubbock, [after 24 February 1871] (Correspondence vol. 19).
2
Lubbock had sent CD a humorous poem on the publication of Descent (see Correspondence vol. 19, letter from E. F. Lubbock, [after 24 February 1871]).
3
Ellen Lubbock had evidently been ill with measles. CD’s daughter, Henrietta Emma Darwin, had recently suffered from a prolonged attack of measles and was still unwell in March (Emma Darwin’s diary (DAR 242) and Correspondence vol. 19, letter to B. J. Sulivan, 13 March [1871]).

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

0.1 Beckenham] interl before del ‘Bromley.’

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-9794F,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-9794F