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NEWNHAM GRANGE, CAMBRIDGE.

26 OCTOBER, 1961.

The Librarian,

Royal College of Surgeons,

Lincoln's Inn Fields,

London, W. C. 2.

 

Dear Sir,

In connection with Down House the following small matter has arisen. My friend Sir Ernest Marsden, F. R. S., has lived for many years in New Zealand and not long ago he visited the northern part of the North Island, where the Beagle called in 1834. He found some records of the visit in a small museum there and got copies photographed of a collection made for a missionary church, to which the members of the Beagle subscribed, including my grandfather with them. You will see the record on the last page but about three of this roll of subscriptions, though I would judge they are not signatures, but all written in one hand.

Marsden gave this to me when he came over this time – he is still to be here in Cambridge for a few weeks, staying at Churchill College. I have no appropriate place to keep the papers, but it occurs to me that possibly it might be kept at Down House for permanence.

He also had a card from the lady who fixed the business for him, and this I am enclosing along with the roll. I am writing to thank her for letting us have it, and if you could decide what to do about it, perhaps it would be a gracious act if you would write some day directly to her to tell her its ultimate fate.

I enclose a copy of my letter to her, and I am also sending a copy to Marsden, together with a copy of this letter.

Yours sincerely,

Charles Darwin