Ɛpsilon

From G. H. Darwin to Emma Darwin   [30 April 1879]1

Trin. Coll.

Wedn.

Dear Mother,

I send a heap of papers for Father about old Eras.2 I have searched for the D’s in the heraldic visitation of 1562 but do not find them.3

I also send some copy of my own M. S. which I shd. like put into my room.4

I go to Lond. today to the R. S Soirée;5 tomorr. I shall perhaps go to the Brit. Mus. & anyhow I must go to the dentist.

I think it is just possible I may come home in the afternoon without luggage— I shall either do so or else go to a theatre.

I have been very unwell but am getting better now.

Yours affec. | G H Darwin

1
The year is established by the reference to papers on Erasmus Darwin; the date is established by the reference to the Royal Society of London soirée (see nn. 2 and 5, below).
2
CD was writing a biographical sketch of Erasmus Darwin, his grandfather (Erasmus Darwin).
3
Heraldic visitations were made to validate claims of armigers (persons entitled to bear heraldic arms) by investigating their pedigrees; the collection of pedigrees was housed at the College of Arms. Many of the original manuscripts are in the Harley collection at the British Library, and copies are held at other institutions. George may have seen the copy of the Visitation of the county of Lincoln, in 1562–4 in Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge (MS 545) or at the British Museum. A version of it was published in 1881 (Metcalfe ed. 1881). The Darwin family is not listed.
4
The manuscript has not been identified, but was probably George’s paper ‘The determination of the secular effects of tidal friction by a graphical method’ (G. H. Darwin 1879); the paper was read before the Royal Society on 19 June 1879.
5
The Royal Society soirée was held on Wednesday 30 April 1879 (see Nature, 8 May 1879, p. 35).

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-12102,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-12102