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Darwin Correspondence Project

From Lucy Caroline Wedgwood   [25 April 1870]1

Monday

Dear Uncle Charles

I have at last made out for certain that my dog does raise his lip on the side on which he is attacked, without raising it on the other.

I tried making a horse kick by whipping him behind when riding him several times and always with the same result: he just turned his ears round before kicking but never once laid them flat as before biting.2

The horse when I scratch him stretches out his nose, opens his mouth a little, and with lips parted &

CD annotations

1.1 I have … other. 1.2] ‘Sneering’ in margin, blue crayon
2.1 I tried … behind] crossed pencil
3.1 The horse … & 3.2] crossed pencil
Top of letter: ‘L. Wedgw’ pencil ‘April 25 1870 | Leith Hill Place’3 ink

Footnotes

The date is established by the annotation. In 1870, 25 April was a Monday.
CD discussed the expressions of dogs and horses in Expression, pp. 117–18 and 129–30, but did not mention Wedgwood.
Wedgwood lived at Leith Hill Place in Surrey.

Bibliography

Expression: The expression of the emotions in man and animals. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1872.

Summary

Aggressive behaviour of dogs and horses.

Letter details

Letter no.
DCP-LETT-7174
From
Lucy Caroline Wedgwood/Lucy Caroline Harrison
To
Charles Robert Darwin
Sent from
unstated
Source of text
DAR 181: 59
Physical description
inc †

Please cite as

Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 7174,” accessed on 28 March 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-7174.xml

Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 18

letter