To W. D. Fox 14 October [1855]1
Down Bromley Kent
Oct 14th
My dear Fox.
I received this morning the Game Chick, for which very hearty thanks & for all the very great & very disagreeable work in this line, which you have done for me.— I have now quite a grand collection of chicken, & shall be able to ascertain how far the young really do differ proportionally with the old.—2 I did write, immediately after I got your last note, to Mrs. Wilmot3 to thank her. The bones of the old gentleman will soon be cleaned.—
With respect to the old Birds, please observe that I can get excellent game, so that all I want are, first rate, old cocks. diag 1. Dorking
2. Cochin
3. Call Duckramme especially the last.—
I go slowly on accumulating facts;—what I shall do with, remains to be seen.—
I am very sincerely sorry to hear that you have been ill, & that your chest has been the peccant part. How most truly & sincerely do I wish that we did live nearer, or that either or both of us were more locomotive; it would be a very great pleasure indeed to see you here again, & learn wisdom from you of all kinds.—
I really have no news: the only thing we have done for a long time, was to go to Glasgow; but the fatigue was to me more than it was worth & Emma caught a bad cold. On our return we staid a single day at Shrewsbury & enjoyed seeing the old place.— I saw a little of Sir Philip (whom I liked much) & he asked me “why on earth I instigated you to rob his Poultry yard?”4 The meeting was a good one & the Duke of Argyll spoke excellently.—5
I had a letter some 2 months ago from Hore,6 who is settled, an old Batchelor, in Devonshire, & has given up Natural History, as he tells me.—
Farewell, my dear old friend. I do hope when next I hear, that you may be stronger. | Your’s affecty. | C. Darwin
I have now diag Fan-tails
Pouters
Runts
!!! Jacobins !!!
Barbs
Dragons
Swallows
!!! Almond Tumblers !!!
!!!ramme
Footnotes
Bibliography
Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.
Variation: The variation of animals and plants under domestication. By Charles Darwin. 2 vols. London: John Murray. 1868.
Summary
CD now has a sufficiently large collection of [skeletons of] chickens to be able to tell how far the young differ proportionally from the old.
He goes on accumulating facts; what he will do with them "remains to be seen".
Attended Glasgow BAAS meeting. "Duke of Argyll spoke excellently" [Rep. BAAS (1855): lxiii–lxxxvi].
Lists his pigeon collection.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-1766
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- William Darwin Fox
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- Christ’s College Library, Cambridge (MS 53 Fox 96)
- Physical description
- ALS 6pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 1766,” accessed on 26 September 2022, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-1766.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 5