To G. J. Romanes   7 April [1875]1

2 Bryanston St. | ☞ Railway Station | Orpington. S.E.R.

Ap. 7th

Dear Mr. Romanes

I have heard from Mr Farrer that his gardener has raised some young plants of the cut-leaved vine, & that they will be hardened off enough to travel in 3 weeks time.—2 Unless I give further instructions, they will be despatched by Ry. to your Scotch address,3 in (now) rather under 3 weeks.—

Huxley & probably Lawson Tait will be at Down on the 18th, & if you are inclined to pay me a visit then will you come?4 In this case you had better start on Saturday 17th by the 5° 2′ train from Charing Cross, & I hope to have a carriage at Orpington Station to meet my guests by this train; or if not able to send, you can take a fly: : the distance is 4 miles.—

Yours very sincerely | Ch. Darwin

P.S. When in presence of my ladies do not talk about any experiment on animals, as they will be horrified.—5

1
The year is established by the relationship between this letter and the letter from T. H. Farrer, 3 April 1875.
3
Dunskaith House, Nigg, Scotland.
4
Thomas Henry Huxley, Lawson Tait, and Romanes visited Down on 17 April 1875 (Emma Darwin’s diary (DAR 242)).
5
CD was discussing a vivisection bill with physiologists; see letter to E. H. Stanley, 15 April 1875 and n. 2. Romanes had considered doing animal experiments to test CD’s theory of pangenesis (see Correspondence vol. 22, letter to G. J. Romanes, 27 December 1874).

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

0.1 2 … St.] before del ‘Down, | Beckenham, Kent.’
2.2 on … 17th 2.3] interl
2.4 by … train] interl
2.4 able to send,] interl

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-9916,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-9916