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From Anthony Rich   8 March 1881

Chappell Croft, | Heene, Worthing.

March 8.—81.

My dear Mr. Darwin

I write a line to you just to say that I received yesterday a letter from Mr. Huxley, announcing his willingness to become the lord of this property, after its present owner has ceased to encumber the earth; and promising to pay me a visit sometime during the Spring or Summer accompanied by Mrs. Huxley.1 That will be extremely agreeable to me, and will afford an opportunity for making them both acquainted with the bearings of the house and premises. At the same time I may take the opportunity to tender you my thanks for the trouble you have taken on my behalf.—

Oh! You asked me a question some time ago, which I have always forgotten to answer—“whether I ever read Ld. Derby’s speeches”.— Yes always—and I have constantly thought that his seat, both when in the Commons, and in the Lords, ought to have been on the opposite of the house to that on which he sat. You see he has come over to that opinion himself—or nearly so.— I used to think that there was some weakness; or want of decision about his conduct when he was Ld. Beaconsfield’s foreign Secretary. But I have since had very serious reasons for believing that one if not two of his colleagues were thwarting him behind his back at the Porte in a manner that left him quite bewildered.2

How late and wayward the Spring is in coming!—

Very sincerely yours | Anthony Rich

1
See letter from T. H. Huxley, 6 March 1881. Rich had added a codicil to his will bequeathing his house to Thomas Henry Huxley. Huxley and his wife, Henrietta Anne Huxley, were planning to visit Rich in the spring.
2
Edward Henry Stanley, fifteenth earl of Derby, although a Conservative for the first part of his political career, was known to be sympathetic to the Liberals. He was foreign secretary from 1874 to 1878 in the government of Benjamin Disraeli, who became earl of Beaconsfield in 1876 (ODNB). He eventually changed allegiance in March 1880 and became colonial secretary in the Liberal government in December 1882. In January 1878, at the end of the Russo-Turkish war, Derby resigned as foreign secretary in protest at the decision to send British warships into the Sea of Marmora, but withdrew his resignation when the order was countermanded; he resigned again in March 1878, when Britain gained Cyprus from the Ottoman Empire and seemed to be moving towards war with Russia (ODNB). For the politics of the war and the debates within government, see G. Hicks et al. eds. 2012. The Porte: a reference to the government of the Ottoman Empire, also known as the Sublime Porte.

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-13080,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-13080