To E. F. Lubbock [after 24 February 1871]1
Down. | Beckenham | Kent. S.E.
Saturday
My dear Lady Lubbock
Very many thanks for the verses just received.2 I am quite delighted that you are well enough to have written them, & thus considering their nature shows much Christian charity on my part.— In earnest I am very glad that your attack, as I infer, has not proved a bad one, for I believe that the measles except with children are no light trifle.—3
Pray believe me | Yours truly obliged | Ch. Darwin
Footnotes
The date is established by the relationship between this letter and the letter from E. F. Lubbock, [after 24 February 1871] (Correspondence vol. 19).
Lubbock had sent CD a humorous poem on the publication of Descent (see Correspondence vol. 19, letter from E. F. Lubbock, [after 24 February 1871]).
Ellen Lubbock had evidently been ill with measles. CD’s daughter, Henrietta Emma Darwin, had recently suffered from a prolonged attack of measles and was still unwell in March (Emma Darwin’s diary (DAR 242) and Correspondence vol. 19, letter to B. J. Sulivan, 13 March [1871]).
Summary
Thanks for verses on Origin and Descent.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-9794F
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Ellen Frances Hordern/Ellen Frances Lubbock
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- Lubbock family (private collection)
- Physical description
- ALS 1p
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 9794F,” accessed on
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 24 (Supplement)
letter
