Ɛpsilon

From G. H. Darwin   [28 October 1877]1

Sunday

My dear Father,

I suppose you will have heard from the Vice Chancellor consulting you as to what time you will like to take your degree.2

I gather from Hughes & Dr. Phear that they would like you to fix on three or four days on which you could come up, out of which they cd. take their choice.3 I told you that there were only stated days on which you cd. take the degree, but I hear now that there is some talk of an extra-congregation but of which no date is fixed & that is why I ask you to name a space of several days— if it included a Thursday I think they wd. be able to have their choice of the ordinary day or the extra day. I wd. suggest the week from Nov 18th.–23rd. I don’t kno’ whether there wd. be any degree besides yr’s on the extra day but perhaps there might be   The special day wd. be a much shorter job than the other because there wd be no ordinary business & wd be over in 20 min. The master of Emman Dr. Phear is very anxious for a special day, but I don’t yet know what the Vice C. thinks4   There might be a few other degrees conferred on the Special day, but I don’t much think there wd. be. However I dare say you will have settled it all before you get this.5

I am afraid I have been working rather too hard lately & I did an act of great courage yesterday in putting aside my work, but I don’t feel as if I cd. take an interest in anything else.6 I was working a good deal when I really was’nt up to it & was very seedy yesterday & today I cd. hardly work if I would.

I will try to work a little easier when I start again, but you can’t think what a pang it cost me to lay it aside (The rest is the fag end of a letter I wrote last night in consequence of some bother about yr degree but which is all removed by what I heard afterwards) even for a day, for I am just bearing down on the most interesting point.

However I went on till I had finished the most difficult point, & I shall be able to take up the thread again now that that is down in black & white. I feel almost confident now that tides in the body of the Earth will have altered the obliquity of the Ecliptic—& there’s a grand result for the geologists to play with. How much & which way I hav’nt the least idea but I suspect it would take a million years even with a very perceptible earth tide to make a considerable change in the obliquity. But we’ve got a good bank of time to draw on & surely even a few degrees of change in geological history wd be very important.

I think it is just on the cards that it may turn out to be an inequality of enormous period say a million years decreasing & then a million increasing but I don’t quite see my way to that yet.

I am so very glad to hear poor Hen. is about again7   I hadn’t the least idea that you were going to pay a visit to London. I hope you will find Uncle Ras tol. Perhaps I will run up for a night— how long do you stay. perhaps tomorrow8

I wonder whether you cd. persuade Frank to come up to Cambridge for your L.LD— Newton Clark & others wd. be so very glad to see him. Is Bessy in London with you?9

Your affectionate son | G. H. Darwin

I’ve left off tee-totalling for I don’t think it suited & I must say like my wine very much

Will you send me a telegram if there is not room for me— I think a day or two’s change may get me up again

1
The date is established by the references to the vice-chancellor’s letter and to CD’s visit to London (see n. 8, below). In 1877, 28 October was a Sunday.
2
See letter from Edward Atkinson, 25 October 1877, concerning the honorary LLD (doctor of laws) that was to be conferred on CD.
3
Thomas McKenny Hughes and Samuel George Phear served on the Senate of the University of Cambridge.
4
Phear was the master of Emmanuel College, Cambridge; the vice-chancellor of the university was Atkinson.
5
CD had written to Atkinson on 27 October 1877, expressing his preference for the degree ceremony to take place on 6 December.
6
George Darwin was continuing to work on his paper on the supposition that that the earth was composed of a viscous or imperfectly elastic matter, and thus subject to tides in its interior (G. H. Darwin 1878; see letter to G. H. Darwin, 18 [October 1877] and n. 3).
7
Henrietta Emma Litchfield had fallen ill with a fever in Switzerland while caring for her husband, Richard Buckley Litchfield, who was recovering from an appendectomy (letter from Horace Darwin to G. H. Darwin, 24–5 October 1877 (DAR 258: 864)).
8
CD and Emma Darwin visited Erasmus Alvey Darwin in London from 26 to 29 October 1877 (CD’s ‘Journal’ (Appendix II)).
9
Francis Darwin had become friends with Alfred Newton and John Willis Clark while he was a student at Cambridge. It is not known whether Elizabeth (Bessy) Darwin visited London.

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-11213,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-11213