To Leonard Horner 23 December [1859]
Down. Bromley. Kent.
Dec. 23d.
My dear Mr Horner.
I must have the pleasure of thanking you for your extreemly kind letter. I am very much pleased that you approve of my Book & that you are going to pay me the extraordinary compliment of reading it twice.
I fear that it is tough reading; but it is beyond my powers to make the subject clearer. Lyell would have done it admirably.
You must enjoy being a gentleman at your ease; & I hear that you have returned with ardour to work at the Geological Society.1 We hope in the course of the winter to persuade Mrs. Horner2 & yourself & daughters to pay us a visit.
Ilkley did me extraordinary good during the latter part of my stay & during my first week at home; but I have gone back latterly to my bad way & fear I shall never be decently well & strong.
With many thanks for your very kind letter | Pray believe me | My dear Mr Horner | Yours very sincerely | Charles Darwin.
P.S. When any of your party write to Mildenhall,3 I should be much obliged if you would say to Bunbury that I hope he will not forget, whenever he reads my Book, his promise to let me know what he thinks about it; for his knowledge is so great & accurate that everyone must value his opinion highly. I shall be quite contented if his belief in the immutability of species is at all staggered.4
Footnotes
Summary
Much pleased that LH approves of Origin.
"Ilkley [Wells] did me extraordinary good."
Wants to know C. J. F. Bunbury’s opinion of Origin.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-2596
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Leonard Horner
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- DAR 145: 140
- Physical description
- C 2pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 2596,” accessed on 28 March 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-2596.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 7