From Charles Darwin to William Kemp   1 December [1843]

Dear Sir

You will be weary of my interminable letters.— Conversing yesterday with M^r. R. Brown (the great Botanist) I found him very skeptical, & to my great surprise he threw some shadow of doubt on the Agyptian Wheat case, & the doubt rested (& likewise in the case of the Raspberry seed) on the evidence not being clear that Sir G. Wilkinson did really get the seed himself or personally knew the person who with his own hands got the seed out of the Mummy Case. Will you, therefore, please to inform me, whether you yourself extracted any of the seeds.— or whether M^r — Bell (please inform me of his Christian name) actually saw the seeds disinterred? Or whether any other middle aged inhabitant (giving ⁠⟨⁠one line missing⁠⟩⁠ witnesses.— Were ⁠⟨⁠the⁠⟩⁠re many work-people present who were witnesses? Could any of them have buried the seed in hopes of being rewarded for the discovery (it has been suspected that this was the case with the Raspberry seeds & known to be the case with some mummy wheat).—

Will you please to give me a brief & correct account of this part of the evidence.

& believe me | Dear Sir | Yours very faithfully | C. Darwin.

Is M^r Bell of Melrose the actual land-owner of the Sand-pit? or does he rent it?