To S. P. Woodward 5 June [1861]1
June 5th
Down. | Bromley. | Kent. S.E.My dear Sir
Thank you for your pleasant note.2 Your nearest station is Bromley, or you would save mile by going on to Bickley; but then by leaving London Bridge at 9o .10’ or 12o .30’ you find Buss at Bromley which would bring you to Keston some 3 miles on road.— Bromley to Knockht Beeches 9 miles.—3
Road through Keston, Down Cudham, much helped by footpaths.— But surely this wd be too great an exertion for you: you can beat me, I could not walk 4 miles hardly to save my life.—
We shd. be very happy to see you here for the day, but we have no attractions, & there are no Downs anywhere, & no O. fusca; we have some fly O. & some Bee O. but I have not yet seen latter.—4
But here is a puzzle, we had fixed positively all to start for Torquay on 10th.— Some Business in hand may interfere & at present I have no guess whether we shall be able to start on that day.—5 If you like to chance a visit we shd be delighted to see you; but we may be all in confusion in packing up our whole household for move on Wednesday.—6
I agree about colonisation of Arctic regions,7 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.—8 I believe my shells are at Geolog. Soc.—9
I want to beg a favour, if Dr. Günther is in London, to get him to give me a note, or reference to any paper, on the Silurus escaping from the Danube.10 How was it ascertained?— Pray forgive haste, I have much to write this afternoon.—
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.—11
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 miles from Knockholt beeches— Below Knockholt lies Chevening Park—rather striking—12
Footnotes
Bibliography
Günther, Albert Charles Lewis Gotthilf. 1859–70. Catalogue of acanthopterygian fishes in the collection of the British Museum. 8 vols. London: by order of the Trustees.
Journal of researches 2d ed.: Journal of researches into the natural history and geology of the countries visited during the voyage of HMS Beagle round the world, under the command of Capt. FitzRoy RN. 2d edition, corrected, with additions. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1845.
Origin: On the origin of species by means of natural selection, or the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1859.
Page, William, ed. 1908. The Victoria history of the county of Kent, vol. 1. London: Archibald Constable.
Porter, Duncan M. 1985. The Beagle collector and his collections. In The Darwinian heritage, edited by David Kohn. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press in association with Nova Pacifica (Wellington, NZ).
Summary
Gives directions to Down. Would be happy to see SPW but regrets they "have no attractions".
Agrees about colonisation of Arctic region.
CD thought that his St Helena land shells had quite recently become embedded; his specimens are at the Geological Society.
Can SPW ask A. Günther for any references to Silurus escaping from the Danube?
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-3043
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Samuel Pickworth Woodward
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- The British Library (Add MS 42579: 230–32b)
- Physical description
- ALS 6pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 3043,” accessed on 26 September 2022, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-3043.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 9