To W. J. Broderip [31 August 1842]
12 Upper Gower St
Wednesday Night
My dear Broderip
I have delayed answering your note, in hopes of getting your question answered by Bell, but he started on a tour, I find, before my note could have reached him, so when to expect an answer (if ever) I do not see.— I believe D’Orbigny has described my ‘diabolicus’,1 but I do not know under what name.—2 The colours sometimes vary a little, but my description of the colours of most is not at all exaggerated.— I have some faint recollection of thinking that I had done wrong in calling it a toad, & that it is a toad-like frog.—
We are on the point of moving all our goods & chattel to a house I have purchased3 (ie I wait only for a conveyancer’s opinion on one point to sign & seal) a house in the small village of Down near Farnborough in Kent—a quiet most rustic spot on the chalk.4 It is 16 miles from London Bridge & I hope to be in town pretty often.—
There are 18 acres with the house, which is tolerably good & I have got them very cheap.
Believe me dear Broderip, in haste | Yours very truly | C. Darwin
I meant to have called to have given you my temporary farewell—
Footnotes
Bibliography
Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.
Journal of researches: Journal of researches into the geology and natural history of the various countries visited by HMS Beagle, under the command of Captain FitzRoy, RN, from 1832 to 1836. By Charles Darwin. London: Henry Colburn. 1839.
Orbigny, Alcide Charles Victor Dessalines d’. 1835–47. Voyage dans l’Amérique Méridionale (le Brésil, la République orientale de l’Uruguay, la République Argentine, la Patagonie, la République du Chili, la République de Bolivia, la République du Pérou), exécuté pendant les années 1826 … 1833. 6 vols. in 7 and 4 atlases. Paris and Strasbourg: Pitois-Levrault et Cie, P. Bertrand.
Summary
Discusses toad [mentioned in Journal of researches, p. 115].
Describes house at Down.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-640
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- William John Broderip
- Sent from
- London, Upper Gower St, 12
- Source of text
- Harry Ransom Center, The University of Texas at Austin
- Physical description
- ALS 3pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 640,” accessed on 18 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-640.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 2