From V. O. Kovalevsky [after 21 November 1880]¹

14 Jermyn Street St. James

Dear Sir

After nearly nine years absence I am again for a few days in London and should be very happy to see You for an hour or so.² My life was not a very quiet one, but now I have settled in Moscow, where they proposed me the chair of Geology at the University.³ I have heard this Sunday from M^rs Huxley⁴ You are going well, have had a glance of Your new book⁵ and shall be glad to see You before leaving London, if possible Thursday.

Yours truly | W. K⁠⟨⁠owalevsky⁠⟩⁠

Footnotes

1

The year is established by the appointment of Kovalevsky at Moscow University (see n. 3, below); the day and month are established by the relationship between this letter and the letter to V. O. Kovalevsky, 25 November [1880]; in 1880, the Sunday before 25 November was 21 November.

2

Kovalevsky may have visited Down on 29 November (letter from Emma Darwin to H. E. Litchfield, [28 November 1880] (DAR 219.9: 253)); he and his wife, Sofia Vasilyevna Kovalevskaya, later met CD for lunch at Queen Anne Street, London (see letter to G. H. Darwin, 9 December [1880]).

3

Kovalevsky was appointed associate professor at Moscow University in 1880 (DSB).

4

Henrietta Anne Huxley.

5

Movement in plants.