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Darwin Correspondence Project

To W. R. S. Ralston   24 April [1875]1

Down, | Beckenham, Kent.

April 24th

Dear Sir

I hope that you will excuse, on the grounds of your friendship with the Litchfields2 my begging a favour of you.— I have received from Russia a bulky Diploma & enclosed letter, of neither of which can I read a word.—3 I shd be very sorry to be so ungracious as not to return my thanks.

Will you, therefore, be so very kind as, not to translate the letter, but just tell me what the Diploma is, & who sends it, & whence it comes.—

Hoping that you will excuse me, I remain | Dear Sir | Yours faithfully | Ch. Darwin

Footnotes

The year is established by the relationship between this letter and the letter from W. R. S. Ralston, 26 April 1875.
Henrietta Emma and Richard Buckley Litchfield.
The diploma is in DAR 229: 41 (see Appendix III); the letter has not been found.

Summary

Asks WRSR to explain a diploma and letter he has received from Russia, so he can return his thanks. [Probably a reference to CD’s being made an honorary fellow of the Society of Naturalists of the Imperial Kazan University in 1875.]

Please cite as

Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 9947,” accessed on 28 March 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-9947.xml

Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 23

letter