Ɛpsilon

To H. W. Crosskey   [4 March 1880]1

Down, Beckenham, Kent.

Dear sir,

I have this day received, through Mr. Lawson Tait, the address from the Birmingham Philosophical Society congratulating me on my birthday, and communicating to me the fact of my election as honorary member.2 The society has thus conferred on me an honour which I believe to be unprecedented.3 Both the address and my election have gratified me deeply, more especially as coming from Birmingham, the birthplace or residence of so many distinguished men, and where the famous Lunar Club, which included my grandfather as one of its members, used to meet.4 At my age I cannot expect to do much more scientific work, but the society may be assured that so great an honour as it has conferred on me will encourage me to further exertion.—

I beg leave to remain, dear sir, yours faithfully and obliged, Charles Darwin.

1
The date is established by the reference to Lawson Tait’s visit to CD in London to deliver a presentation copy of an address (see n. 2, below).
2
See letter from H. W. Crosskey, 28 February 1880. The Darwins were in London from 4 to 8 March 1880; Tait visited on 4 March (Emma Darwin’s diary (DAR 242)).The presentation copy of the address has not been found in the Darwin Archive–CUL; CD had already received the text in an article from the Birmingham Daily Post, 13 February 1880, p. 5 (see letter to Lawson Tait, 13 February 1880), and Crosskey enclosed a copy in his letter of 28 February 1880.
3
CD was the society’s first honorary member; see the Birmingham Daily Post, 13 February 1880, p. 5.
4
CD’s grandfather Erasmus Darwin was a member of the Lunar Society of Birmingham, a small club of pioneering natural philosophers, doctors, and manufacturers (for more on the Lunar Society, see Schofield 1963 and Uglow 2002).

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-12503,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-12503