Darwin Correspondence Project

17 Spring Gardens.

Dear FitzRoy,

Very many thanks for your letter; it has made me most comfortable, for it would have been heart breaking to have left anything quite behind & I never should have thought of sending things by some other vessel. This letter will, I trust accompany some talc.— I read your letter without attending to the name. But I have now procured some from Jones which appears very good—and I will send it this evening by the Mail. You will be surprised at not seeing me propriâ personâ instead of my handwriting But I had just found out that the large steam Packet did not intend to Sail on Sunday & I was picturing to myself a small dirty cabin with the proportion of 39/40 of the passengers very sick—when Mr Earl came in and told me the Beagle would not sail till the beginning of November. This of course settled the point so that I remain in London one week more. I shall then send heavy goods by steamer, and start myself by the Coach on Sunday evening.

Have you a good set of mountain barometers— Several great guns in the Scientific World have told me some points in geology to ascertain which entirely depend on their relative height. If you have not a good stock I will add one more to the list— I ought to be ashamed to trouble you so much but will you send one line to inform me? I am daily becoming more anxious to be off and if I am so you must be in a perfect fever. What a glorious day the 4th of November will be to me— My second life will then commence, and it shall be as a birthday for the rest of my life.

Believe me dear FitzRoy, | Yours most sincerely, | Chas. Darwin. *S 2

Monday.

I hope I have not put you to much inconvenience by ordering the room in readiness—