Darwin, C. R. to Woodward, S. P.
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Gives directions to Down. Would be happy to see SPW but regrets they "have no attractions".
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Agrees about colonisation of Arctic region.
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CD thought that his St Helena land shells had quite recently become embedded; his specimens are at the Geological Society.
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Can SPW ask A. Günther for any references to Silurus escaping from the Danube?
Summary Add
Transcription
June 5
Down. | Bromley. | Kent. S.E.My dear Sir
Thank you for your pleasant note. Your nearest station is
Bromley, or you would save
Road through Keston, Down Cudham, much helped by footpaths.— But surely this
w
We sh
But here is a puzzle, we had fixed positively all to start for Torquay on
10
I agree about colonisation of Arctic regions, but in some respects it seems to me a very perplexing question.
I fancied that the land-shells which I collected at St. Helena, from their position had quite recently become embedded & extinct.— I believe my shells are at Geolog. Soc.—
I want to beg a favour, if D
I heartily wish your Boys & self a pleasant excursion whether they come into this part or not.— If you come cross Holwood Park by footpath— very pretty.—
Yours very sincerely | C. Darwin
I just see by starting from Victoria St. by London Chatham & Dover
R. you can go to St. Mary's Cray & then you would be 6
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- f1 3043.f1
The year is given by the reference to the planned visit to Torquay (see n. 5, below). - +
- f2 3043.f2
The letter from Woodward has not been found. He was an assistant in the geology department of the British Museum. - +
- f3 3043.f3
From the letter it appears that Woodward had proposed to visit CD in Down en route to Knockholt, Kent, near which is located the landmark known as the Knockholt Beeches, a `remarkably fine' clump of old trees on the high ground of a chalk plateau (Victoria history of the county of Kent 1: 478). Knockholt is several miles south-east of Down. - +
- f4 3043.f4
According to the Victoria history of the county of Kent 1: 64, `no British county excells Kent in the number of its orchids'. CD had examined the fly orchis, Ophrys muscifera, and the bee orchis, O. apifera, for his study of their pollinating mechanisms. - +
- f5 3043.f5
Negotiations were being conducted to secure William Erasmus Darwin a partnership in the Southampton and Hampshire Bank, Southampton (see letter to W. E. Darwin, 6 [June 1861). - +
- f6 3043.f6
In the event, the Darwins postponed their departure for Torquay and remained at Down until the end of June (see `Journal'; Appendix II). - +
- f7 3043.f7
For CD's views on `colonisation' and the migration of species through the Arctic before and during the glacial period, see Origin, pp. 365--82. - +
- f8 3043.f8
CD believed that the land molluscs of St Helena had become extinct as a result of deforestation during the preceding century (see Journal of researches 2d ed., p. 488). - +
- f9 3043.f9
The location of the fossil shells collected by CD during the Beagle voyage is undetermined (see Porter 1985, pp. 996--7). - +
- f10 3043.f10
Albert Charles Lewis Gotthilf G¨unther, employed by the British Museum, was preparing a catalogue of the freshwater fish in the museum's collection (G¨unther 1859--70). Silurus is a genus of Eurasian catfishes. Woodward complied with CD's request. See letter from A. C. L. G. G¨unther to S. P. Woodward, 14 June 1861. - +
- f11 3043.f11
Holwood Park, near Bromley, Kent, was the seat of Robert Monsey Rolfe, Baron Cranworth. - +
- f12 3043.f12
Chevening, the family seat of Philip Henry Stanhope, is a few miles north-west of Sevenoaks, Kent.