To Charles Lyell [7 March 1847]
Down Farnborough Kent
Sunday
My dear Lyell
I returned home on Friday night & found here your present of your work;1 I am very much obliged for it & now that I have it, I may say I am extremely glad that it is not merely a loan, as there is, I can perceive, much new which I shall want to refer to.— You have, not, however, sent the list of the new parts, as you promised, which I shd be glad of,2 as I have not time at present to read it through; amongst other reasons Stokes3 having lent me the Annales des Sc. in 30 vols, which I must soon wade through.—4
I suppose you have commenced in earnest on your American work;5 I had hoped to have seen you in passing through London but I had a good deal to do, & have lately had much unwellness.— — I got R. Chambers to give me a sketch of Milne’s Glen Roy views6 & I have reread my paper,7 & am now, that I have heard what is to be said, not even staggered. It is provoking & humiliating to find that Chambers not only had not read with any care my paper on this subject or even looked at the coloured map, so that the new shelf, described by me,8 had not been searched for, & my arguments & facts of detail not in the least attended to.— I entirely gave up the ghost & was quite chicken-hearted at the Geolog. Soc., till you reassured me, & reminded me of the main facts in the whole case.—
I heartily hope the new Edit. of the Principles will have a large sale; my S. America has had an enormous sale according to my notions, 100 copies having been sold. By the way if you will send me the list of your additions, I will copy it (not lending it to anyone) & return the original to you.
My visit to Shrewsbury was rather a melancholy one, for though I found my Father better, he is much changed bodily during the last six months.
Farewell, my dear Lyell, with many thanks for your present. Yours ever | C. Darwin
Footnotes
Bibliography
Collected papers: The collected papers of Charles Darwin. Edited by Paul H. Barrett. 2 vols. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press. 1977.
Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.
Lyell, Charles. 1847. Principles of geology; or, the modern changes of the earth and its inhabitants considered as illustrative of geology. 7th ed. London. [Vols. 4,9]
Lyell, Charles. 1849. A second visit to the United States of North America. 2 vols. London. [Vols. 4,7]
‘Parallel roads of Glen Roy’: Observations on the parallel roads of Glen Roy, and of other parts of Lochaber in Scotland, with an attempt to prove that they are of marine origin. By Charles Darwin. [Read 7 February 1839.] Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London 129: 39–81. [Shorter publications, pp. 50–88.]
Summary
Has received copy of CL’s Principles [7th ed.].
Comments on reading Annales des sciences naturelles.
David Milne’s and Robert Chambers’ views on Glen Roy.
Mentions sales of South America.
Describes visit to his father at Shrewsbury.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-1070
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Charles Lyell, 1st baronet
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.59)
- Physical description
- ALS 3pp & C
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 1070,” accessed on 4 June 2023, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-1070.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 4
