DARWIN, Charles Autograph letter signed, to Lady Drysdale. Wells Terrace, Ilkley, Otley, Yorkshire, [1859]
One page, 8vo (179 x 110 mm). £3500
This letter to Lady Drysdale thanks her for her 'kindness about the Hornets' combs' and asks her to send them care of G. Snow at an address in Southwark. '... Will you be so good as to send them packed in a little Box with cotton-wool (in 3 or 4 weeks' time) per Railway addressed as follows: C. Darwin...'
Lady Drysdale was the mother-in-law of Edward Lane, proprietor of Moor Park, a health establishment Darwin visited on several occasions. The Yorkshire address dates this letter some time from October to December 1859, when Darwin visited a hydropathic establishment with his family. The letter itself is only dated 'Saturday'.
It has recently been discovered that this is the opening section of a longer letter (Calendar of Darwin's correspondence, number 2498a). Darwin had accidentally slipped one sheet inside another so that the continuation is not on the reverse of the first page, which happens to end with his name.
£3500
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