Ɛpsilon

To Josiah Wedgwood III   [after 12 July 1851]1

with the note enclosed to Stokes.—2

Forgive this trouble | Your’s affectly, | C. Darwin

P.S | Please tell me, if you can, what amount of income & what capital was included in the £220 lately paid by you to me: it drives me mad to confound income & capital.—3

Give my best love to Caroline & many thanks for her Swanage note, which interested me much, as I have been always most curious to know impression produced by Swanage.—4

P.S. Will you register for me the Pap⁠⟨⁠ers for⁠⟩⁠ Railway.

1
Dated on the basis of an entry dated 12 July 1851 in CD’s Account book (Down House MS) concerning the money mentioned in the letter (see n. 3, below).
2
Charles Stokes, fellow of the Geological Society of London and friend of CD, was a stockbroker in Threadneedle Street in the City of London (Modern English biography). Stokes had earlier carried out financial transactions for CD (see Correspondence vol. 4, letters to Josiah Wedgwood III, [22 June – 10 August 1847] and [20? August 1847], n. 3).
3
An entry in CD’s Account book reads: ‘[July] 12 J. Wedgwood Capital *£150 Capital [interl] & Interest (Balance 2040£) [£]220’.
4
CD and William Erasmus Darwin had visited Swanage on 22 July 1848 (Emma Darwin’s diary; Correspondence vol. 4, Appendix I). The second paragraph of the first postscript is deleted: this was probably done by Josiah Wedgwood III to separate the financial from the personal message.

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

1.1 enclosed] interl
1.1 Stokes] before omitted point

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-1213,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-1213