From W. B. Dawkins 8 February 1871
Norman Road | Rusholme, Manchester
8. Feb. 1871
My dear Sir,
By this post I send to you the results obtained by following up the clue afforded by the box of bones carried so bravely by Miss Godsal on pony back from a fissure near Corwen.1 It has led up to a series of explorations, which at all events have the negative virtue of demolishing the classificatory value of platycnemism as a character of race.2 I believe that eventually we shall have quite a cave-digging and tumulus hunting mania in the county, thanks to your kindness in sending the little box of bones.
In Yorkshire our cave-hunting has not been so successful: for we cannot carry our date further back than the 3d century after Xt. Never-the-less we have lighted on a most touching picture of the misery wrought in the highly civilized dwellers in Strathclyde, by the Picts & the Northumbrians. We find ‘Roman’ keys and the most beautiful ornaments in enamel, & other objets de luxe lying in a rude accumulation of debris—like that of the Dordogne,—in a cave some 1200 feet above the sea.3
I am looking forward to your new work with a longing curiosity.4
Hoping that you are none the worse for the severe weather | I am | My dear Sir | Yours truly | W. Boyd Dawkins
Charles Darwin Esq F.R.S. | Down.
Footnotes
Bibliography
Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.
Dawkins, William Boyd. 1869. The Denbighshire caves. Transactions of the Manchester Geological Society 9 (1869–70): 31–7.
Descent: The descent of man, and selection in relation to sex. By Charles Darwin. 2 vols. London: John Murray. 1871.
Freeman, Richard Broke. 1977. The works of Charles Darwin: an annotated bibliographical handlist. 2d edition. Folkestone, Kent: William Dawson & Sons. Hamden, Conn.: Archon Books, Shoe String Press.
Lucas, Peter. 2007. Charles Darwin, ‘little Dawkins’ and the platycnemic Yale men: introducing a bioarchaeological tale of the descent of man. Archives of Natural History 34: 318–45.
OED: The Oxford English dictionary. Being a corrected re-issue with an introduction, supplement and bibliography of a new English dictionary. Edited by James A. H. Murray, et al. 12 vols. and supplement. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1970. A supplement to the Oxford English dictionary. 4 vols. Edited by R. W. Burchfield. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1972–86. The Oxford English dictionary. 2d edition. 20 vols. Prepared by J. A. Simpson and E. S. C. Weiner. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1989. Oxford English dictionary additional series. 3 vols. Edited by John Simpson et al. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1993–7.
Summary
The box of bones sent by CD has led to a series of explorations. Reports on Yorkshire cave-hunting.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-7477
- From
- William Boyd Dawkins
- To
- Charles Robert Darwin
- Sent from
- Manchester
- Source of text
- DAR 162: 125
- Physical description
- ALS 3pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 7477,” accessed on 13 May 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-7477.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 19