To E. R. Lankester 9 July 1879
Down, | Beckenham, Kent. | Railway Station | Orpington. S.E.R.
July 9th 79
My dear Dr. Lankester
I hope that you will be so good as to thank the authoress for her kind present & yourself accept my thanks. It is a grief to me that some part of my brain has undergone a new form of degeneration, for though in old days I much enjoyed the higher kinds of poetry, now for several years I have not been able to read a line! Perhaps the ‘key-notes’ may revive my taste, & I will make the trial, but greatly fear that all the ganglia in my skull have become too prosy.—1
I am delighted to hear that you will be able to give up more time for original investigations; for I have always thought, if you will allow me to say so, that you could do splendid work.2
Believe me | Yours sincerely | Charles Darwin
We are going to the Lakes for a Holiday soon & I will take the Poem— the place will be propitious.—3
Footnotes
Bibliography
Bevington, Louisa Sarah. 1879. Key-notes. London: C. Kegan Paul & Co.
Lester, Joseph. 1995. E. Ray Lankester and the making of modern British biology. Edited and with additional material by Peter J. Bowler. Oxford: British Society for the History of Science.
Summary
Asks that authoress be thanked for poem. Enjoyed poetry in old days; now cannot read a line.
Delighted that ERL will find time for original investigations.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-12140
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Edwin Ray Lankester
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.565)
- Physical description
- ALS 3pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 12140,” accessed on 26 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-12140.xml