To H. W. Bates 15 October [1862]1
Down. | Bromley. | Kent. S.E.
Oct 15th
My dear Mr Bates
I want to hear a little news of you & your Book, & how you & it go on.—2 We have had a wretched summer & have returned home about a fortnight.—3
One of my poor Boys, Leonard, was fearfully ill for two months from effect of Scarlet fever & on our journey to sea-side, Mrs Darwin sickened with the fever & we were detained 3 weeks at Southampton.4 My health has suffered considerably, but I am now slowly at work again.—
When at leisure pray let me have a line, telling me what you have been doing.—
By the way the other day a Mr Edwin Brown of Burton sent me Procs. of N. Ent. Soc. with a letter,5 in which he tells me that he is working at a genealogical classification of genus Carabus.— In answer I told him that you had thought of something of the kind.6
Pray believe me | Yours very sincerely | C. Darwin
Footnotes
Bibliography
Bates, Henry Walter. 1863. The naturalist on the River Amazons. A record of adventures, habits of animals, sketches of Brazilian and Indian life, and aspects of nature under the equator, during eleven years of travel. 2 vols. London: John Murray.
Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.
Summary
Asks for news of HWB and his book.
There has been sickness in CD’s family; one of the boys [and Emma] had scarlet fever.
Has had a letter from Edwin Brown of Burton who is working on classification of Carabi.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-3764
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Henry Walter Bates
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- Cleveland Health Sciences Library (Robert M. Stecher collection)
- Physical description
- ALS 3pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 3764,” accessed on 18 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-3764.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 10