Lyell, Charles to Darwin, C. R.
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Regrets not seeing CD before leaving on trip [to the U. S.]. CD's move from London will be a privation for CL.
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Returns charts on coral reefs.
Summary Add
Transcription
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– My dear Darwin
I have no doubt that your father did righly in persuading you to stay, but we were much
dissappointed in not seeing you before we start for a years absence— I cannot tell you how often since your long illness I have missed
the friendly intercourse which we had so frequently before & on which I built
more than ever after your marriage— It will not happen easily that twice in
ones life even in the large world of London a congenial soul so occupied with precisely
the same pursuits & with an independance enabling him to pursue them will fall
so nearly in my way, & to have had it snatched from me with the prospect of your
residence somewhere far off, is a privation I feel as a very
great one— I hope you will not like Herschell get far off from a rail
way— I have told my clerk to send to your house the
charts on Coral reefs you kindly lent me but I have taken with me
L
With our joint wishes for your entire recovery & the health & happiness
of your wife & family believe me ever most sincerely y
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- f1 604.f1
CD initially wrote from Shrewsbury that he intended to return to London by the 16th (see letter to Charles Lyell, 6 [July 1841]). However, he did not return until the 23d (‘Journal’; Correspondence vol. 2, Appendix II). Lyell evidently departed for America shortly after the 16th (Wilson 1972, pp. 459–60, 517). - +
- f2 604.f2
During his visit to Shrewsbury, CD had persuaded his father to support him in the purchase of a country house (see letter to Emma Darwin, [3 July 1841]). - +
- f3 604.f3
In 1840 J. F. W. Herschel had bought a country house in Kent (Buttmann 1970, p. 129). - +
- f4 604.f4
William Smyth. He is listed as an Admiralty Mate on the Blossom's roster (Beechey 1831, 1: ix). The view of Pitcairn Island is reproduced in Lyell 1830–3, 2: 297.