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Darwin Correspondence Project

To T. C. Eyton   25 August [1868]1

Down. | Bromley. | Kent. S.E.

Aug. 25

Dear Eyton

I was very glad to see your hand-writing again, & I thank you sincerely for your intended present of your Osteology.2 How nobly & perseveringly you have stuck to your arduous task!

I had heard of your skeleton of Opisthocomus.—3 I am sorry to hear about your eyes. I shd. have very much liked to have been at Norwich; but my weak health rendered it impossible.4 Oh for those good old days when I hunted with your Harriers & fished at Eyton: those were happy times for me.5

With many thanks & all good wishes   Believe me Dear Eyton | Yours very sincerely | Ch. Darwin

Footnotes

The year is established by the relationship between this letter and the letter from T. C. Eyton, 23 August [1868].
In his letter of 23 August [1868], Eyton said he was sending CD a copy of the main part of his Osteologia avium (Eyton 1867–75).
CD had hunted with Eyton in 1830 (see Correspondence vol. 1, letter to W. D. Fox, [8 October 1830]). Eyton’s home was Eyton Hall, in Wellington, Shropshire (ODNB).

Bibliography

Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.

Eyton, Thomas Campbell. 1867–75. Osteologia avium; or, a sketch of the osteology of birds. 1 vol. and 2 supplements. Wellington, Salop.: R. Hobson.

ODNB: Oxford dictionary of national biography: from the earliest times to the year 2000. (Revised edition.) Edited by H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. 60 vols. and index. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2004.

Summary

Thanks TCE for copy of his book [Osteologia avium (1867)].

Recalls visits to Eyton.

Letter details

Letter no.
DCP-LETT-6331
From
Charles Robert Darwin
To
Thomas Campbell Eyton
Sent from
Down
Source of text
American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.353)
Physical description
ALS 2pp

Please cite as

Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 6331,” accessed on 5 June 2025, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-6331.xml

Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 16

letter