From:
Mary Congreve
To:
Charles Robert Darwin
Date:
27 Oct [1821]
Source of text:
DAR 204: 186
Summary:
Writes about London plays; wishes CD had been of the party.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
Writes about London plays; wishes CD had been of the party.
Has found a shop with supplies of chemical equipment, and a mineral collector.
EAD wants changes made and shelves built to improve the laboratory at the Mount [Darwin residence]; sends drawings and will bring chemical instruments, a book, and his record of experiments done in his chemistry course.
He has now been matriculated.
Suggestions for laboratory equipment. Will buy some mineral specimens. Describes experiments he has seen.
More suggestions for the laboratory, including some experiments.
Discusses plans for CD to visit Cambridge.
Writes, while visiting the Wedgwoods at Maer and Parkfields, to thank CD for his "entertaining letter".
She misses him and the laboratory.
Asks "how Mineralogy, Botany, Chemistry and Entomology go on".
Warns CD against idleness.
Suggests readings in Xenophon and Horace.
Quotes Oliver Goldsmith to correct CD’s pronunciation of "sloth".
Saw a mineral salesman, but he had nothing CD does not already have.
EAD has a piece of petrified sponge and some curious coal that John Price pulled out of his fire.
Griffith’s Animal kingdom [Griffith, Edward, et al. 1827–35. The animal kingdom arranged in conformity with its organization, by the Baron Cuvier, … with additional descriptions of all the species hitherto named, and of many not before noticed. 16 vols. London] just being published. He is sure CD would like it.
Proposes a dry place for the apparatus for their laboratory and draws a plan for CD’s criticism.
Price has found black sediment in his tea, which was attracted to a magnet.
Asks CD to do an experiment for him.
Has found a curious stone in his fire.
Price’s iron in tea measured 13 per cent.
Tells CD a bill is all right. Hopes his father will pay it and a wine merchant’s bill as well.
EAD thinks it a pity if CD does not go to Cambridge, but it will be very pleasant for them to be together at Edinburgh, where they should go as soon as possible and read. EAD is getting "case-hardened" in anatomy.
Asks CD to send him some books on physiology and natural history from the family library.
Asks CD whether he is making any plans for Edinburgh.
Will be home in three weeks.
Shrewsbury news.
Glad he likes Edinburgh.
They have been going to plays performed by a travelling company he knows.
Family news.
A ball and two concerts at Shrewsbury; guests at the Darwins’: Mr and Mrs Mathew, three Mr Clives, Emma Wedgwood.
Family news. Visits to the Owens at Woodhouse and the Parkers at Overton.
Spark has died. Other family news.