Ɛpsilon

To the Darwin children   17 [January 1880]1

Down, | Beckenham, Kent. | Railway Station | Orpington. S.E.R.

Saturday evening 17th

My dear Children.

I have just found on my table your present of the magnificent fur-coat.2 If I have to travel in the winter, it will be a wonderful comfort, for the last time I went to London I did not get over the cold for 2 or 3 days.3 The coat, however, will never warm my body so much as your dear affection has warmed my heart.

My good dear children | Your affectionate Father | Charles Darwin

N.B. I should not be myself if I did not protest that you have all been shamefully extravagant to spend so much money over your old father, however deeply you may have pleased him.

To Henrietta— please send this on to William, who can send it to Lenny. No man knows where Horace is.— Bessy will be with you.—4

1
The month and year are established by the relationship between this letter and the letter from the Darwin children, 17 January 1880.
3
CD was last in London from 3 to 11 December 1879 (Emma Darwin’s diary (DAR 242)).
4
Henrietta Emma Litchfield, William Erasmus Darwin, Leonard Darwin, Horace Darwin, and Elizabeth Darwin. Horace and Ida Darwin were on honeymoon in Penzance (letter from Emma Darwin to W. E. Darwin, 19 January 1880 (DAR 219.1: 131)).

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-12429,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-12429