To G. H. Darwin   12 July 1879

Down,

12th July 79

My dear G.

I have written to thank Col. Chester & told him that nothing had better be done about the deeds at present.—1 I shd. think that it would be quite useless hereafter to set him to work, but you of course can decide. Oh how your mother sneers at us!—2

C. D.

Here is a bad job; Henrietta thinks my notice of Dr. D very dull,—almost too dull to publish, & I believe that she is right.— I shall be anxious to hear what Eras. thinks. I suppose I must cut it down largely.3 No one will ever catch me again trying to go beyond my tether.

P.S | Reginald Darwin is excessively pleased & thanks you much for the old Darwin information.4

2
Emma Darwin was probably amused by George’s discovery of an illustrious ancestor (see letter from G. H. Darwin, 24 June 1879).
3
Henrietta Emma Litchfield had read the proof-sheets of CD’s introductory essay for Erasmus Darwin. Erasmus Alvey Darwin apparently liked it (see letter to Francis Darwin, 12 July [1879] and n. 9).
4
This postscript was added after publication of the letter in Correspondence vol. 27. Its content was recorded before the collection at CUL was fully catalogued and its current location is unknown. George had sent Reginald Darwin several consignments of old family records (see Correspondence vol. 27, letter from Reginald Darwin, 11 July 1879.

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

1.1 Chester] altered from ‘C.’

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-12149,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-12149