Ɛpsilon

To G. H. Darwin   8 September [1881]1

West Worthing Hotel

Sept. | 8th.

My dear George

I was extremely glad to get your note at Mr Rich’s, telling me about your paper.2 I have just seen your work noticed in the summary in the Times. I am very glad that you went to York, & I feel sure that it was proper for you to do so in person.—3

I have had a long & pleasant talk with Mr. Rich, & there is something about him, which pleases me much; he is so simple & modest. I think that I told you that I thought myself bound to tell him of the large fortune from Erasmus. & that under such changed circumstances I considered him most fully justified in altering his will.4 I begged him to consider it for a week, & then let me hear his decision. But he would not let me finish, & protested he shd. do nothing of the kind & that with so many sons I required much money. In this I heartily agree; though your mother is quite sorry! I now feel convinced that nothing will induce him to change.— He is in doubt about executors, as his sister is one & is now old. & he asked me whether William wd. be one, if hereafter he so determined; & please tell William that I answered for him & said that I was sure he wd. feel bound to act to the best of his power as his executor, if so appointed.—5 As I feel now pretty sure of Mr Richs fortune, it is all the more necessary for me to arrange my will on some fair scale of proportions to sons & daughters. I fear that poor dear old William will have been worked to death & will not have had time to calculate about the value of my property, with that of Erasmus added. But I ought to settle soon, & when you are at Down, I will get out my will & codicils, & settle what I ought to do, that is if I possibly can do so.—

Ever your affectionate father | C. Darwin

How could my father have got any of the Cleatham land?6

1
The year is established by the reference to the visit to Anthony Rich (see n. 2, below).
2
See letter from G. H. Darwin, [7 September 1881]. CD visited Rich in Worthing from 8 to 10 September 1881 (CD’s ‘Journal’ (Appendix II)).
3
George had attended the British Association for the Advancement of Science meeting in York, where he presented a report on behalf of the committee appointed for the measurement of the lunar disturbance of gravity. His report was published in the Report of the 51st Meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, held at York (1881), pp. 93–126, and briefly mentioned in The Times, 7 September 1881, p. 10.
4
Erasmus Alvey Darwin had bequeathed half of his personal estate and all his real property to CD (see letter from G. H. Darwin, 28 August 1881). In December 1878, Rich had declared his intention of leaving some valuable property to CD, and had agreed to CD’s settling this on his children (see Correspondence vol. 26, letter from Anthony Rich, 10 December 1878).
5
Rich’s sister Emma Burnaby did outlive him, but was in her mid-seventies in 1881; William Erasmus Darwin served as Rich’s executor (see Pall Mall Gazette, 12 May 1891, p. 6).
6
See the letter from G. H. Darwin, [7 September 1881], in which George had stated that Erasmus Alvey Darwin’s land in Lincoln was part of the Cleatham estate. CD was puzzled by how his father, Robert Waring Darwin, obtained this land because the Darwin family had not owned land in Cleatham after 1762 (Worsley 2017, p. 40).

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

2.8 now] interl
2.10 & said 2.11] interl
2.17 , that … so.] interl

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-13322,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-13322