My dear Georgina

This morning there was plenty of cobwebs on the K. Garden Hedge,— so many that the children remarked on them; though I have occasionally seen more.— I marked 13 with red worsted. At 12 I passed down the Hedge, & having forgotten all about it, I did not notice one. Then I remembered & returned with Emma as witness; & walking slowly & looking pretty carefully I could see hardly any & began to put faith in your account. When I put my head close into hedge & examined each square foot I could find a good many. But when I came to my marked webs, they were all in statu quo. I tried same thing a week or two ago, with same result.—

I do not know what conclusions you will draw; but I know what audacious conclusions I draw.— Emma, who has so good a heart, says that as when I looked really closely I could see webs everywhere, she thinks you, who are so sharp-sighted, could not have overlooked them before, so that they must have disappeared. I, alas, have not nearly so good a heart.— Anyhow in the 13 webs marked neither spiders or anything else had caused a line to disappear.—

I am very ungrateful not at least to wish to see (,or rather not see) what you saw; as you cheered me so in my work on Species.—²

Pray believe me, yours affectionately | Ch. Darwin