To T. H. Farrer   8 October 1880

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

Oct 8th 1880

My dear Farrer

I am sorry to trouble you again, but I enclose envelope ready addressed to give as little trouble as possible.— I am quite perplexed by the extension of the excavations. You will remember which was the first room that was cleared (with a concrete floor, & tesseræ over a part) & will you be so kind as mark this room in both plans in pencil as “First Room,” & return the plans to me, & I will afterwards return them to you.1 You had 2 trenches dug for me; one I call in my notes “the upper or N.W. trench” & the other “the lower or S.W. trench”— “Upper” & “lower” referring, I suppose, to the slope of the field.2 The upper trench was close to the upper bounding wall of the “first room,” which seems to have been the atrium.—

If you can remember places, will you put pencil crosses (X) where trenches were dug.

I am astonished at my own perplexity about the plans— The points of the compass do not agree in the 2 plans.—3

Yours very sincerely | Ch. Darwin

The fir-leaves are drawn by the worms into the mouths of their burrows, & if you will look, you will see that they are all drawn in by the basal end which shows more sense or instinct, in worms than I shd have given them credit for.—4

Many thanks for address of Mr Caird & for promise of castings.5

(Morning 8th)6

P.S. Elizabeth Wedgwood was in exactly the same state yesterday as on previous days.7 She suffers a good deal from her breathing, but is wonderfully patient. She does not eat nearly enough, & I think if she does not rally soon, she must sink. If it is to be, I wish it may be soon for her sake.—

Horace & Ida were in wonderfully good spirits when here;8 it did one good to see people so happy & how marvellously strong Ida is. She could ascend Mont Blanc!

1
Farrer had sent a published plan and another drawn by himself of the Roman villa excavated at Abinger in 1877 (see letter from T. H. Farrer, 6 October 1880).
2
CD had been visiting the Farrers at Abinger Hall in August 1877 when the villa began to be excavated; two trenches had been dug so that CD could examine the nature of the soil near the remains to ascertain the extent of worm activity (CD’s ‘Journal’ (DAR 158); Earthworms, pp. 179–83).
3
Farrer confirmed that the compass bearings on the printed map were incorrect (see letter from T. H. Farrer, 9 October 1880 and n. 2).
4
Farrer had supposed that the fallen leaves of fir trees had washed into the holes and made little crowns of spines (letter from T. H. Farrer, 6 October 1880). CD’s experiments to test the notion that worms could determine the most efficient way to draw in material to plug the mouths of their burrows were discussed in Earthworms, pp. 64–98.
5
James Caird. Farrer had promised to send wormcasts from his gravel paths (see letter from T. H. Farrer, 6 October 1880).
6
Given that this postscript is labelled ‘morning’, CD may have mistakenly dated it 8th instead of 9th.
7
Elizabeth Wedgwood, Emma Darwin’s sister, was seriously ill; on 6 October, Farrer had written to say that he had heard a slightly better account of her health (see letter from T. H. Farrer, 6 October 1880 and n. 7).
8
Horace and Ida Darwin had stayed at Down on 3 and 4 October (Emma Darwin’s diary (DAR 242)). Ida was Farrer’s daughter.

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

0.1 (Railway … S.E.R.)] parentheses added
1.3 which was] interl above del ‘that’
1.3 that] above del ‘which’
1.4 in] after del ‘as’
1.7 referring] above del ‘being’
5.3 in worms] interl

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-12743,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-12743