The month and year are established by the salutation, which indicates that this letter predates Nevill and CD’s first meeting on 4 May 1875 (Emma Darwin’s diary (DAR 242; after meeting him in person, Nevill would have written, ‘Dear Mr Darwin’), and by the times of CD’s visits to London. Nevill did not live at 45 Charles Street before 1873, so the letter cannot date from CD and Nevill’s correspondence in the 1860s. An opportunity to meet might have occurred in December 1874, when CD was in London, but Nevill’s letter from Dangstein on 26 [December 1874] (see Correspondence vol. 22) gives no indication that they had just missed seeing one another. The only other time that CD was in London between the resumption of their correspondence in September 1874 and their meeting on 4 May 1875 was April 1875 (see n. 2, below).

Joseph Dalton Hooker was a frequent visitor to Dangstein (Nevill 1919, p. 66). CD was in London from 31 March until 12 April 1875 (see ‘Journal’ (Appendix II)).