[1]

Jun 30. Lubbock

I am in receipt of your letter of the 28th inst as to the loan of the schlrm for a lecture 2 evenings of Febry─ If, as I am informed, it is intended one of them wld. be at the for [illeg] the use of the C. Pearson you will excu kindly excuse me if I decline to entertain the proposals

For the purposes of a lecture, however, the infant schlrm wld be quite suitable, & as the attendance of readers is very thin, it cld [illeg] I shld well be spared for the purposes as I shld be sorry to be misunderstood & [keep] you to believe that I mean no personal discourtesy whatever to yourself in this matter.

[2]

Lubbock. Feb. 3.

I have rec'd yr letter of the 1st. inst. allow me to observe that I have been so grossly insulted on more than one occasion by the Darwin family that I cannot be expected to take any interest in anything that concerns them

But as the request you make is really one for the decision of the schl committee I have referred to them & finding they see no particular obstacle to the use of the room.

I cons notify their consent but for what are [illeg] as I consider + have not my own. As might have been [illeg], there is not the slightest enthusiasm at in the parish on the question of the lecture.

+ good & sufficient reasons, you will excuse me if I withheld my own