Ɛpsilon

From V. H. Darwin   13 April [1879]1

2. Park Villas | North Str. | Derby

Sunday Apr. 13.

My dear Cousin.

I send you the view of the Priory within the prescribed limits. All my people, and Reginald too, who has been here, pronounce it correct & a faithful likeness. I have in fact done it so often, that I could make this view without a “copy”—2

I forgot to say in my last, that if you would wish the old view of Elston to be reduced, I shall be most happy to try my hand—3

Your affectly. | V. H. Darwin

diagram

This is just an idea of the Priory as it is now— The present owner has spent thousands on it, and has made it into a non: descript. It was considered gabled Elizabethan—4

1
The year is established by the relationship between this letter and the letter from V. H. Darwin, 9 April 1879.
2
Violetta Darwin’s drawing of Breadsall Priory (Erasmus Darwin’s death place) was used in Erasmus Darwin, p. 125. Reginald Darwin was Violetta’s brother.
3
Elston Hall, Nottinghamshire, was the birthplace of Erasmus Darwin; a drawing of Elston Hall as it was before 1754, made by Violetta, was reproduced in Erasmus Darwin, p. 3. See plate on p. 233.
4
The Elizabethan house had been constructed on the ruins of Breadsall Priory (a priory of the Augustinian order), and given the same name. Several alterations were made in the eighteenth century. After Francis Morley purchased the house in 1860, it was altered and extended in the Victorian Gothic style by the architect Robert Scrivener. See Redman 1998, pp. 6, 8, and 15. Violetta’s published drawing (see n. 2, above) gives a view of the house presumably as it was before the 1860 alterations.

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-11991,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-11991