From E. A. Greaves   3 January 1878

14 Pittville Parade, | Cheltenham

Jany. 3rd. 1878

Dear Sir,

Thanks to Parker’s dilatoriness the Picture had not been forwarded1   I sent off to Mr. Myers2 with the corrected address, and also called this morning upon Mr. P: I trust, the Portrait will arrive safely, it goes from me uninjured, & the more I examine it, I think that it will adorn either your own or your relations dining-room—

If it could speak, it would tell of its own travels and interesting history, 1st. at Ashborne, then over the chimney piece at Derby in Uncle Hadley’s dining-room afterwards in several migrations to residences with my esteemed & loved Aunt Hadley & more strange still to myself, and last to those who will value it for its ancestral worth—3 Glad as I am to see it so safely housed, I feel a little pang when I say farewell to the dear old painting— I received yr. handsome acknowledgment for it, but never was such a thing heard of as payment before the article received it is most kind & benevolent of you.4

I shall be glad to hear that Parker has duly attended to all directions—

At your leisure I shall be glad to learn your opinion of the painting. Wrights are I believe considered valuable, tho’ in his life-time he did not receive the commendation he ought to have done.

I send you another copy of my friend’s; I have another so pray accept it—5

Receive my best wishes for the New-Year & I hope that you may be spared many more to look on your justly famed ancestor— | I am dear Sir, | Yours truly, & obliged, | Elizth. A. Greaves

P.S. Parker’s men have just been for the Picture; and it will be sent off tomorrow morning, so that I trust you will receive it in the Eveng. in the same condition it went from here: I laid down very strict injunctions—& they will be answerable for any damage—

1
Greaves had arranged to sell CD a portrait of his grandfather Erasmus Darwin by Joseph Wright of Derby (see Correspondence vol. 25, letter from E. A. Greaves, 14 December 1877). The portrait is reproduced on p. 254. Parker may have been George Parker of Cheltenham, a ‘commission agent, auctioneer, appraiser & accountant, house and estate agent, dealer in coins &c.’, who also offered to warehouse ‘goods of all descriptions … in dry rooms’ (Post Office directory of Gloucestershire, with Bath, Bristol, Herefordshire, and Shropshire 1879).
3
The portrait had belonged to Susanna Hadley, an illegitimate daughter of Erasmus Darwin. Susanna had been in charge of a girls’ school at Ashbourne, near Derby, from 1784 until her marriage in 1809 to Henry Hadley, Greaves’s uncle.
4
CD recorded a payment of £50 to Greaves on 2 January 1878 in his Account books–banking account (Down House MS).
5
Greaves sent an unidentified pamphlet (see Correspondence vol. 25, letter from E. A. Greaves, 14 December 1877).

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-11309F,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-11309F