To W. T. Thiselton-Dyer [19 December 1875]
Summary
CD’s attempts to get support for Lankester among Fellows of the Linnean Society. He has encountered opposition to the Council.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | William Turner Thiselton-Dyer |
| Date: | [19 Dec 1875] |
| Classmark: | Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (Thiselton-Dyer, W.T., Letters from Charles Darwin 1873–81: 52–5) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-10308 |
From Edward Blyth 22–3 August 1855
Summary
Gives extracts from a letter by Thomas Hutton.
Rabbits are kept (generally by Europeans) in the NW. provinces and breed freely. Canaries are not well adapted to the climate. Reports on domestic cats and pigeons of the area. EB gives references to further information on cats, pigeons, and silkworms.
[CD’s notes are an abstract of this letter.]
| Author: | Edward Blyth |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 22–3 Aug 1855 |
| Classmark: | DAR 98: A79–A84 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1746 |
To J. S. Burdon Sanderson [11 April 1875]
Summary
"We have not a day to lose if our [Vivisection] Bill or our petition is to do any good". Reports on the activities of the opposition and the attitude of politicians on the subject. Believes a meeting with a minister should be arranged and thinks Lord Derby would be a good man. "All will depend on some half-dozen or 9 or 12 men agreeing on the bill."
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | John Scott Burdon Sanderson, 1st baronet |
| Date: | [11 Apr 1875] |
| Classmark: | University of the Witwatersrand, Historical Papers Research Archive (A237f, letters to Sir John Burdon Sanderson) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-9923 |
From J. D. Hooker 15 June 1872
Summary
Expects the memorial to make Gladstone frantic. Government regrets granting Lord Derby the correspondence and Lubbock has been advised to postpone calling for it in Lower House. This looks fishy. Is exhausted by the affair.
| Author: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 15 June 1872 |
| Classmark: | DAR 103: 114–15 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8386 |
From J. D. Hooker 11 May 1872
Summary
The die is cast on Ayrton affair. Lord Derby has called for all of the correspondence, as a result of pressure by men of science on JDH’s behalf.
Has just had a Greenland collection, which supports his views altogether; "I am ready to do fight for these with you."
| Author: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 11 May 1872 |
| Classmark: | DAR 103: 109–10 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8317 |
From M. C. Stanley 4 June 1872
Summary
Sackville Cecil would like to be present with Francis Galton at one of William Crookes’s séances. Can CD arrange it?
| Author: | Mary Catherine Sackville-West, countess of Derby; Mary Catherine Gascoyne-Cecil, countess of Derby; Mary Catherine Stanley, countess of Derby |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 4 June 1872 |
| Classmark: | DAR 162: 165 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8369 |
From Anthony Rich 8 March 1881
Summary
Huxley has written to accept gift of Rich’s house.
Approves of Lord Derby’s politics.
| Author: | Anthony Rich |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 8 Mar 1881 |
| Classmark: | DAR 176: 148 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-13080 |
From John Murray 10 May 1871
Summary
Offers CD same payment for the 3d issue of Descent as for 2d.
Has bespoke four better drawings of birds in case a 4th issue is needed.
Vanity Fair wants CD’s portrait by Carlo Pellegrini ["Ape"].
| Author: | John Murray |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 10 May 1871 |
| Classmark: | DAR 171: 398 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-7750 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … letter from T. W. Wood, 24 April 1871 . The editor of Vanity Fair was Thomas Gibson Bowles . The portrait of Roderick Impey Murchison appeared in the 26 November 1870 issue of Vanity Fair ; that of Otto von Bismarck appeared in the 15 October 1870 issue; and that of Edward George Geoffrey Smith Stanley , …
To R. A. T. Gascoyne-Cecil [18 May 1878]
Summary
Requesting permission to present a declaration against war to the Foreign secretary.
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Robert Arthur Talbot Gascoyne-Cecil, 3d marquess of Salisbury |
| Date: | [18 May 1878] |
| Classmark: | Daily News, 23 May 1878, p. 2 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-11515F |
From M. C. Stanley 14 September 1875
Summary
Thanks CD for telling her "such exact truth". She saw Thomas Carlyle at Keston – the country air has done him good – "he is half sorry to have been so unsociable on his first arrival".
| Author: | Mary Catherine Sackville-West, countess of Derby; Mary Catherine Gascoyne-Cecil, countess of Derby; Mary Catherine Stanley, countess of Derby |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 14 Sept 1875 |
| Classmark: | DAR 162: 167 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-10157 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … Edward Henry Stanley ) had put Keston Lodge, Keston, Kent, at Thomas Carlyle’s disposal for the summer of 1875 ( D. A. Wilson 1898 , p. 334). Carlyle visited Down on 26 August and 12 and 19 September 1875 ( Emma Darwin’s diary (DAR 242)). Holwood House is a country house in Keston, Kent. CD had known the previous owner, Robert Monsey Rolfe , Lord Cranworth. Lady Derby herself had stayed there for a time ( letter …
From M. C. Stanley 19 September 1877
Summary
Count Schouvaloff asserts that CD’s works are prohibited in Russia. Is he not mistaken?
| Author: | Mary Catherine Sackville-West, countess of Derby; Mary Catherine Gascoyne-Cecil, countess of Derby; Mary Catherine Stanley, countess of Derby |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 19 Sept 1877 |
| Classmark: | DAR 162: 169 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-11146 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … Edward Henry Stanley ). Derby, the foreign secretary, was resisting pressure from Queen Victoria and the prime minister, Benjamin Disraeli , for British military intervention against Russia in the war with the Ottoman Empire. For the Stanleys’ involvement in this episode and their relationship with Shuválov, see Grosvenor 2011 and Otte 2011 . Popularisations of CD’s theories had been banned in Russia, but his works were widely read ( Choldin 1985 , p. 85), and CD was aware of his popularity. See also Correspondence vol. 15, letter …
From Edward Blyth [30 September or 7 October 1855]
Summary
Origin of domestic varieties. EB ascribes "abnormal" variations to man’s propagation of casual monstrosities; believes "normal" variations, e.g. European races of cattle, are a consequence of man’s selecting the choicest specimens. Gives examples of "abnormal" variations; they give rise to features that have no counterpart among possible wild progenitors. Divides domestic animals into those whose origin is known and those whose origin is unknown. Considers that the wild progenitors of nearly all domestic birds are known. Fowls and pigeons show many varieties but if propagated abnormalities are ignored each group can be seen to be variations of a single species, the ancestors of which can be recognised without difficulty. Discusses varieties and ancestry of the domestic fowl. Variation in the wild; the ruff shows exceptional variability; other species of birds show variability in size of individuals. Remarks that markings sometimes vary on different sides of the same animal. Comments on the want of regularity in leaf and petal patterns of some plants. Discusses domestic varieties of reindeer and camels. Origin of humped cattle. Reports the rapid spread of a snail in lower Bengal that was introduced as a single pair five or six years previously.
[CD’s notes are an abstract of part of this memorandum. Memorandum originally enclosed with 1760.]
| Author: | Edward Blyth |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | [30 Sept or 7 Oct] 1855 |
| Classmark: | DAR 98: A25–A36 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1761 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … letter. James Thomson , Scottish poet, published his poem ‘Summer’ in 1727; it became a part of his popular work ‘The seasons’ first published in 1730. The lines of ‘Summer’ ( Thomson 1727 ) to which Blyth refers, read: Some ruminating lie; while Others stand Half in the Flood, and, often bending, sip The circling Surface. Edward Smith Stanley , …
To Librarian, Royal Society of London 27 October [1856]
Summary
Orders Andrew Knight’s paper ["An account of some experiments on the fecundation of vegetables", Philos. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. (1799): 195–204] and J. E. Gray’s book [Gleanings from the menagerie and aviary at Knowsley Hall (1846)].
| Author: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Addressee: | Royal Society of London |
| Date: | 27 Oct [1856] |
| Classmark: | University of Michigan Library, Special Collections Research Center (Science and Philosophy Collection, gift of J. Christian Bay) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1013 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … letter was originally published in vol. 3 of the Correspondence with the conjectured date 27 Oct [1846 or 1848? ]. Knight 1799 . This and other works by Thomas Andrew Knight were frequently cited by CD in Natural selection , Origin , Variation , and his botanical works. J. E. Gray 1846 . Cited in Natural selection and Variation . Edward Smith Stanley , …
From J. D. Hooker 6 October 1865
Summary
On novels he has been reading: Eliot, Richardson, etc.
On Wallace, the Reader, and anthropology.
| Author: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 6 Oct 1865 |
| Classmark: | DAR 102: 37–42 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-4910 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … letter to J. D. Hooker, 27 [or 28 September 1865] and n. 29). Parliamentary life was a central theme of a number of Anthony Trollope’s novels, many of which were written around the time of his own failed attempt to enter parliament ( DNB ). William Ewart Gladstone was chancellor of the Exchequer and, from October 1865, leader of the House of Commons ; Edward George Geoffrey Smith Stanley , …
From J. D. Hooker 14 May 1872
Summary
More on Ayrton affair. Conduct of Gladstone and the Ministry despicable. They have owned him to be in right but will not raise a finger until exposure in Parliament is imminent.
| Author: | Joseph Dalton Hooker |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 14 May 1872 |
| Classmark: | DAR 103: 112–13 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8327 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … letter from J. D. Hooker, 11 May 1872 and n. 1). William Ewart Gladstone became prime minister at the end of 1868; this parliament was dissolved in January 1874, and Benjamin Disraeli became prime minister ( ODNB ). Robert Lowe , George Frederick Samuel Robinson (the marquess of Ripon), Edward Cardwell , Charles Wood (Viscount Halifax), Henry Austin Bruce , and George Douglas Campbell (the duke of Argyll) were members of Gladstone’s administration. Edward Henry Stanley , …
From George Cupples 4 June 1873
Summary
J. V. Carus’ lecture.
Edinburgh intellectual climate.
Ralph Waldo Emerson’s visit to Edinburgh.
J. H. Stirling did not write anonymous review of Expression in Edinburgh Review. Suggests T. Spencer Baynes of St Andrews. [? T. S. Baynes, "Darwin on expression", 137 (1873): 492–528.]
| Author: | George Cupples |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 4 June 1873 |
| Classmark: | DAR 161: 299 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-8935 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … letter from George Cupples, 1 May 1873 and n. 3). Cupples had given CD an Irish deerhound puppy named Bran in 1870 ( Correspondence vol. 18). Morni was a champion deerhound whose owner, George Walter Hickman , was a breeder and authority on deerhounds (see Dalziel 1889 , 1: 48–9, 74). The late Edward George Geoffrey Smith Stanley , …
From John Henry Gurney 2 July 1856
Summary
Hybrids of Phasianus versicolor breed freely between themselves as well as with common pheasants. Has been assured that hybrids between mallards and pintails are sometimes fertile inter se.
| Author: | John Henry Gurney |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 2 July 1856 |
| Classmark: | DAR 165: 259 |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-1916 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … Edward Smith Stanley , Earl of Derby, had established a private menagerie at Knowsley Hall, Lancashire. The fertility of offspring of Phasianus versicolor crossed with P. colchicus is discussed in Natural selection , pp. 438, 440. In Natural selection , p. 439, CD cited two cases of a hybrid between the mallard and pintail: the first was a specimen exhibited by Twiselton Fiennes (see CD’s annotations, above) at a meeting of the Zoological Society on 13 December 1831 ( Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London pt 1 (1830–1): 158); the second was mentioned in a letter …
From W. E. Darwin [5 and 8? April 1868]
Summary
Langstaff has seen no trace of blushing on the body.
| Author: | William Erasmus Darwin |
| Addressee: | Charles Robert Darwin |
| Date: | 5 and 8 Apr 1868 |
| Classmark: | DAR 162: 81; Cornford Family Papers (DAR 275: 34) |
| Letter no: | DCP-LETT-6149 |
Matches: 1 hit
- … Stanley Robert Pearce and Robert Chatfield Hankinson ; the merger took place in 1869 ( Banking almanac 1870), and the bank was listed under the name Maddison, Atherley, Hankinson and Darwin. Pearce died later in 1868, after many years of illness ( Hampshire Advertiser , 12 December 1868, supplement p. 4). Embley Park, about five miles north-west of Southampton, was the estate of William Edward Nightingale , Florence Nightingale’s father. Dr Hooker: Joseph Dalton Hooker . William had been taking the water cure at Malvern (see Correspondence vol. 16, letter …
| letter | (38) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (15) |
| Darwin, W. E. | (5) |
| Gascoyne-Cecil, M. C. | (4) |
| Hooker, J. D. | (4) |
| Sackville-West, M. C. | (4) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (22) |
| Burdon Sanderson, J. S. | (5) |
| Hooker, J. D. | (2) |
| Torbitt, James | (2) |
| Cross, R. A. | (1) |
| Darwin, C. R. | (37) |
| Burdon Sanderson, J. S. | (7) |
| Hooker, J. D. | (6) |
| Darwin, W. E. | (5) |
| Gascoyne-Cecil, M. C. | (5) |
