Ɛpsilon

From Francis Darwin   [after 3 June 1875] 1

Down, | Beckenham, Kent. | Railway Station | Orpington. S.E.R.

My dear Father

I send the proof back put right, it was the first which completely wrong—115 = .06 which is nearer .067 than to .066. The second is all right.2 I can’t think how it came wrong, the sums are not filled in in the MS & the calculations of them are not in the heap kept

I am very sorry we cant come tomorrow; it is the only chance we have of giving a farewell poke up to the Band of Hope3

Klein is all square again4

This is the worst pen in Europe—I shall extract it painlessly

I am very glad you are happy at Abinger.5 It seems that providence has settled against the catalogue even if you hadn’t6

Yrs affec | Frank Darwin

The Zoolog Record has come7

The proof got crumpled up by mistake I am very sorry

1
The date is established by the reference to proof-sheets of Insectivorous plants and by CD’s stay at Abinger Hall (see nn. 2 and 5, below).
2
Francis Darwin had been correcting proofs of Insectivorous plants; for the correction referred to, see ibid., p. 373.
3
The Band of Hope was a national temperance society (see Blocker et al. 2003, 1: 86–7). There was a branch in Down (Correspondence vol. 24, letter from Emma Darwin to J. B. Innes, 24 December [1876]).
5
CD and Emma Darwin stayed at Abinger Hall, Dorking, Surrey, from 3 June to 6 July 1875 (CD’s ‘Journal’ (Appendix II)).
6
CD employed Thomas William Newton, the assistant librarian at the Museum of Practical Geology in London, to prepare a catalogue of his library; it was completed in August 1875 (DAR 240).
7
CD received annual copies of the Zoological Record; the volume for 1873 was published around this time (Publishers’ circular, 16 July 1875, p. 502).

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-10007F,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-10007F