My dear M^r Nash

I thank you sincerely for your most kind Dedication, & I heartily wish that I deserved it more fully than is the case.¹ Emma began reading aloud your volume to us yesterday evening, & we liked it much, though not as yet arrived at new ground, yet it told us several new things. There is not a word in it superfluous, & this as far as my experience goes with books of travels is an extremely rare virtue.

Pray thank M^rs. Nash for her note.² We often & often regret your & M^rs. Nash’s absence, & say if you were here we would talk about this or that point.—

But we ought not to regret your move, for Beckenham is a larger field for the unbounded goodness of both of you.³

Believe me | Yours ever very sincerely | Charles Darwin

Frank has gone to Cambridge for some electrical work with plants, otherwise he w^d have sent a message to M^rs Nash.—⁴