My dear Sir

I called on the editor of the P.M. Gazette when I got up to town this morning. Your book has been already bagged by some earlier sportsman— Whether Lewes or not, he did not say: but probably he is the man—¹

I am rather disappointed, but am certainly not competent to review the book: but then very few writers on the P.M.G or any other newspaper are: & I s^hd. certainly have taken pains with it.

I am very much obliged to you for giving me the pleasure of your personal acquaintance; your book—the Origin—has had considerable influence on my mind. If I had read it earlier in life it might have completely changed the course of it. So naturally I looked forward to seeing you with something more than the ordinary curiosity & interest one feels in every celebrated man.²

I hope when any fresh inquiry occurs to you, you will forward it to me— Your questions even when I cant answer them, always set me thinking—& open my mind to fresh fields of thought & pastures new—

With regards to Mrs. Darwin | believe me | Yours very truly | Winwood Reade