Regrets he cannot take Francis Owen on Beagle as midshipman. RF thinks CD had better be on the books [for victuals], but CD should do as he likes. Refitting progress is slow.
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The Charles Darwin Collection
The Darwin Correspondence Project is publishing letters written by and to the naturalist Charles Darwin (1809–1882). Complete transcripts of letters are being made available through the Project’s website (www.darwinproject.ac.uk) after publication in the ongoing print edition of The Correspondence of Charles Darwin (Cambridge University Press 1985–). Metadata and summaries of all known letters (c. 15,000) appear in Ɛpsilon, and the full texts of available letters can also be searched, with links to the full texts.
Regrets he cannot take Francis Owen on Beagle as midshipman. RF thinks CD had better be on the books [for victuals], but CD should do as he likes. Refitting progress is slow.
Much disappointed that CD will leave home before she returns.
She encloses a pin with "genuine hair" and is flattered that it will go around the world with CD.
Reports on a setter puppy born of apparently pure pointer parents. Any cross must have been far back.
CD’s luggage is frightfully bulky, though he has been as economical as possible. Has made financial arrangements for his expenses.
Plans to study mathematics during voyage.
Their letters crossed; she now knows he will be gone for three years, not two; does not know what they will do without him at the Forest, but wishes him well.
Has just heard Beagle sailing is delayed so he will remain another week in London. Asks whether RF has a good set of mountain barometers, which geologists tell him are important.
Gives CD directions for sending him specimens from Beagle.
Writes of Cambridge politics.
Questions about his college bills.
Describes the living conditions he will have on the Beagle.
The outfitting of the Beagle progresses.
CD has been dining out more than he wishes. He has met W. S. Harris of "Electricity" fame.
His fears and hopes about seasickness.
A new continent has been discovered "somewhere far South". "Perhaps we may be sent in search."
Is sending plates for R. T. Lowe’s paper [Trans. Cambridge Philos. Soc. 4 (1833): 1–70].
Adds advice on working the surd.
Agrees with CD that Beagle voyage would have been wrong for Jenyns, but assures him he (CD) is the right man. Warns CD against his "foible" of taking offence at rudeness or ungentlemanlike behaviour.
Describes the wedding of her sister Sarah and related festivities. She misses CD very much.
Family and Shropshire news.
News of family and friends, much of it about forthcoming marriages: Fanny Owen and R. M. Biddulph, Fanny Mackintosh and Hensleigh Wedgwood. Charlotte Wedgwood will write to him of her own engagement to Charles Langton.
Writes about Hensleigh Wedgwood’s marriage to Frances Mackintosh and her own engagement to Charles Langton. Also gives news of other relatives and friends.
News of Cambridge: the recent examinations; memorial tablet for Marmaduke Ramsay.
Writes with great happiness about the first part of the voyage, after his misery from seasickness passed. He finds himself well prepared, the ship quiet, comfortable, and compact; he has already a "rich harvest" and finds the natural history (especially geology) exceedingly interesting. The tropics are full of great beauty.
Sends a short résumé of his trip on the chance that it will arrive in England earlier than longer letter [158] which he hopes to send by surer means.
He is "incessantly occupied by new and most interesting animals" and thinks he will be able to do some original work in natural history.
Chronicles the events of February, principally of the family and of a few friends: engagements, marriages, deaths, some visits.
Writes of his family and Shropshire events. Comments on the slow progress of the Reform Bill.