RECORD: Darwin, C. R. [1863]. Abstract of E. L. Darwin, The game-preserver's manual. CUL-DAR185.147. Edited by John van Wyhe (Darwin Online, http://darwin-online.org.uk/)
REVISION HISTORY: Transcribed by Christine Chua and edited by John van Wyhe 7.2020; 8.2022. RN5
NOTE: See record in the Darwin Online manuscript catalogue, enter its Identifier here. Reproduced with permission of William Huxley Darwin.
From the 2018 Sotheby's auction description: "'Abstract on Traps' in pencil on the verso, possibly in Emma Darwin's hand, and 'CD autograph' in ink in a later hand, folio leaf crudely cut at the foot (253 x 203mm)...Charles Darwin; his daughter Henrietta ('Etty') Litchfield (1843-1927); her niece Margaret Keynes, née Darwin (1890-1974); thence by descent". Richard Keynes provided CUL a copy of this in 1988 which is in CUL-DAR221.4.72.
Edward Levett Darwin was Darwin's first cousin, son of his father's half-brother, Francis Sacheverel Darwin (See Darwin pedigrees, p. 18.) See the only known letter from E. L. Darwin 7 September 1863 in Correspondence vol. 11, p. 623. This research culminated in the only joint printed between Darwin and his wife Emma: [Darwin, Emma and C. R. Darwin]. [1863]. An appeal [against steel vermin traps]. [Bromley, Kent]: [privately printed.] F1931
[147]
Conclusions from Capt. Darwins Book.—
The smaller vermin can be very effectively caught by dead-fall traps; & one of them (no. I), requires no stones which & stones could not easily be always found.
It is admitted as an advantage that the trap need not be always daily visited & these traps are not liable to catch game & are not of much value. But the great bulk of no. I would render it impossible for the keeper to carry about more than one or two traps.
(Cats, are which seem are greatly arboreal, can (but are not usually) caught by a dead-fall trap, but this could apparently be only set when there are heavy stones, & is but fitted for all spots cases)
(It is evidently thought an advantage that Dogs shd be caught & this can be only by steel-traps. On the hand in most districts (except Scotland & N. Wales &c) the catching of liability to catch foxes wd be thought a great disadvantage.)
It is pretty clear that steel-traps areare reckoned the most useful of all traps.
Citation: John van Wyhe, ed. 2002-. The Complete Work of Charles Darwin Online. (http://darwin-online.org.uk/)
File last updated 19 November, 2023