Showing 101–120 of 493 items
Tells of the family’s pleasure in reading CD’s first two letters and his journal.
Comments on Shrewsbury politics, the cholera, and the family. Sedgwick calls often; Catherine thinks he is interested in Susan.
News of family and friends.
Reports on the commissions CD requested of him [in a missing letter]; comments on English political issues.
Brief summary of the voyage so far. His delight in the Brazilian forest; his trip into the interior; the turbulence at Rio; has grown a beard.
Gives CD an "account of my life and adventures since we parted" and news of her family.
He is staying on the Isle of Wight because he has been unwell. He is thought to be in danger of contracting consumption, and the climate is beneficial. He is convalescent now, but will spend the winter there.
Offers to forward any natural history stores CD may want.
News of the Darwin, Wedgwood, and Owen families, including a report on Frances Wedgwood’s death.
Rejoices in what she hears of his voyage and his pleasures in it.
Writes of her new life, and of their relatives and friends.
Writes news of family, Maer, and Woodhouse. His father has sent for a banana tree
and plans to buy J. J. Audubon’s book [Birds of America (1827)].
Charles Langton has been given a living near Ludlow.
During the past two months CD has been lucky with fossil bones, and he is also finding new specimens of living animals.
He describes an ostrich hunt.
Has received several letters from home.
He enjoys Buenos Aires and admires the señoritas. Tierra del Fuego is next.
A French collector [Alcide d’Orbigny] has been at the Rio Negro and will probably have "taken the cream". CD’s luck with fossil bones, among them a large extinct armadillo-like animal. Describes some birds, toads, Crustacea, and other marine specimens. Nearly all plants flowering at Bahia Blanca were collected. Is sending two large casks of fossil bones by packet.
Notes for CD on a river trip to Mercedes on the Rio Negro [Uruguay].
Sketches the Beagle’s travels – Rio de Janeiro, Montevideo, cruise to the south and return – and what the future holds. Writes with nostalgia of England and says he sees no end to the voyage.
He enjoys and has been lucky principally in geology and among pelagic animals; has found remains of large extinct animals.
Family news.
Sends news of himself and CD’s friends. Discusses changes in England, the coming elections, Cambridge politics.
Family news. Uncle Jos [Josiah Wedgwood II] has been returned to Parliament with a fine majority.
Acknowledges receipt of two letters from CD and a box of specimens.
Mentions attendance at BAAS meeting and a gift to him of a small living near Oxford. Some political news.
Congratulates CD on the work he has done – the specimens are of great interest. Gives advice on packing, labelling, and future collecting and suggests that – as a precaution – CD send home a copy of his notes on the specimens.
His health has improved but he continues "a good deal of an invalid" and is uncertain what the future holds for him.
His interest in entomology and ornithology continues; he has been studying the gulls on the Isle of Wight.
Captain Beaufort has offered to get one more letter to CD before the long voyage around the Horn;
SD brings family news up to date.
Sends her love and family news.