Ɛpsilon

WCP2923

Letter (WCP2923.2813)

[1]1

Leeds Naturalists' Club and Scientific Association.

259, HYDE PARK ROAD,

Leeds,

16th. Feb. 1909

My dear Sir

At a meeting of this Club held yesterday to celebrate the Centenary of the birth of Charles Darwin2 (12th Feb[ruary]. 18089) it gave us great pleasure to adopt a resolution respectfully congratulating you upon the completion last year of fifty years from the date of the simultaneous publication of the papers3 by yourself and the late Charles Darwin in the Journal of the Linnean Society, in which you brought forward the influence of variation and natural selection in bringing about the modification and development of species.

It is to me a great satisfaction to be the means of conveying to you these congratulations, which as President I proposed from the Chair, and which were seconded by Mr. John W. Taylor,4 who has had the pleasure of meeting5 you at your own house a year or two ago.

One of the exhibits in our Darwin Centenary meeting was the facsimile copy of the illuminated address which a deputation of Yorkshire Naturalists presented to Mr. Darwin at Down to celebrate the "Coming of Age" of the "Origin of Species" — which I believe was the first public congratulation of the kind Mr. Darwin had. I beg to enclose a copy of the facsimile for your acceptance if you care to have it. and with kind regards & best wishes for your continued health & prosperity

I am | yours very sincerely | W. Denison Roebuck6 [signature] President

To Dr. Alfred Russell [sic] Wallace, O.M.,

Broadstone,

Dorset.

1
In pencil in ARW’s handwriting, "Roebuck".
2
Darwin, Charles Robert (1809-1882). British naturalist, geologist and author, notably of On the Origin of Species (1859).
3
Darwin, C. R. and A. R. Wallace. 1858. On the tendency of species to form varieties; and on the perpetuation of varieties and species by natural means of selection. Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society of London. Zoology 3 (20 August): 46-50.
4
Taylor, John William (1845-1931). British malacologist, conchologist and author.
5
Record of the visit has not been found.
6
Roebuck, William Denison (1851-1919). British conchologist and entomologist. President of the Leeds Naturalists’ Club and Scientific Society.

Editorial information

Status: Draft transcription [Letter (WCP2923.2813)]

For more information about the transcriptions and metadata, see https://wallaceletters.myspecies.info/content/epsilon

Revision history

Transcribed by Cooper, Rod [2015-03-12] Transcription checked by Benny, Ruth [2015-03-12] Transcription checked by Sherwood, Danni [2020-08-10] Transcription checked by Chua, Christine [2026-04-18]

Please cite as “WCP2923,” in Beccaloni, G. W. (ed.), Ɛpsilon: The Alfred Russel Wallace Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/wallace/letters/WCP2923