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To Maxwell Tylden Masters   21 March [1868]1

Down Bromley Kent [4 Chester Place]

March 21st

My dear Sir

As gardeners have much to do with worms, I think that you will find the enclosed little communication, written by my niece, worth insertion in Gard. Chronicle. I can vouch for her remarkable accuracy.—2

Let me take this opportunity of thanking you most sincerely for a very kind review (written I suspect by yourself) of my Book, but I fear too favourable.3 I shd. be content if I thought it deserved half so much praise; & I am sure that what was said in Gard. Chronicle was enough by itself almost to sell the edition4

My dear Sir | Yours very sincerely | Ch. Darwin

Footnotes

1
The year is established by the reference to the notice for insertion in Gardeners’ Chronicle (see n. 2, below).
2
The enclosure has not been found, but a short notice on ‘Worms’ by ‘I. W.’ (Lucy Caroline Wedgwood) appeared in the Gardeners’ Chronicle, 28 March 1868, p. 324. CD’s copy (in the Cory Library, Cambridge University Botanic Garden) has the annotation ‘Lucy | Worms’ at the top of the first page of the issue, and the article is annotated.
3
CD refers to the unsigned review of Variation which appeared in the Gardeners’ Chronicle, 22 February, p. 184. CD’s annotated copy is in the Cory Library, Cambridge University Botanic Garden.
4
The initial print-run of Variation consisting of 1500 copies had sold out within a week of publication (see letter to W. B. Tegetmeier, 15 February [1868]).

Bibliography

Variation: The variation of animals and plants under domestication. By Charles Darwin. 2 vols. London: John Murray. 1868.

Summary

Sends his niece’s [Lucy Wedgwood] observations on worms, vouches for her accuracy, and suggests the piece be inserted in Gardeners’ Chronicle [see "Worms", Gard. Chron. (1868): 324].

Adds his thanks for a "very kind review" of his book [Variation, Gard. Chron. (1868): 124].

Letter details

Letter no.
DCP-LETT-6032
From
Charles Robert Darwin
To
Maxwell Tylden Masters
Sent from
Down
Source of text
American Philosophical Society (Mss.B.D25.)
Physical description
ALS 2pp

Please cite as

Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 6032,” accessed on 18 May 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-6032.xml

Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 16

letter

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