WCP7289

[1]

1, Savile Row,

Burlington Gardens,

W.

April 30 1886

Dear Mr Darwin,¹

In another envelope I send you the promised letters of your father.² They are not all I have, for I have kept back some which contain nothing likely to interest your readers. [2] You are free to use whatever you think proper for the purposes of your work: but its too complimentary expressing would be better curtailed or omitted.

I cannot find the notes I imagined he wrote about Xmas 1880 on the subject of his memorial³ to the Prime Minister⁴ on behalf of Mr Wallace,⁵ and I conclude that his first communication on the subject was not by letter, but [[3] that he called & asked me to be the intermediary during the Xmas Holidays in passing the memorial on to the gentlemen who were to sign it, of whom he left me a list & to get Lord Aberdeen’s⁶ signature on Geographical grounds, a delay having afterwards occurred owing to D^r Hooker⁷ [4] being out of town & not returning the memorial, then came an agonized note from your Father saying that he was afraid the opportunity was now lost. This may have been a post-card, which I cannot find.

The glacial argument puzzled me a good deal, as I had very nearly forgotten all about it. After searching I have found the enclosed, which must be the paper your father’s words apply to. The argument used must be now very familiar to biologists. Thos Belt⁸ got over the difficulty by his ingenious polar ice-cap flowing-of-the-sea theory.

Yours sincerely | HWBates⁹ [signature]