Ɛpsilon

From W. E. Darwin   21 November 1881

Bank, Southampton,

Nov 21 1881

My Dear Father,

At last I send you your Maryport & Carlisle dividend Warrant.1

I am slowly getting thro’ the Executorship2 & am now doing the tiresome work of passing the residuary a/c.

I have written to the Lawyers about your succession duty on the house and land.3

It will be very jolly coming to you on the 3rd of December4

It is great news about Prof. Challis. I suppose Geo. is certain to succeed.5

Goodbye dear Father | Your affect son | W. E. Darwin

I shall much like meeting Mr Graham6

1
Emma Darwin’s trust included shares in the Maryport & Carlisle railway company (CD’s Investment book (Down House MS), p. 124). Erasmus Alvey Darwin had been a co-trustee (see Correspondence vol. 5, letter from E. A. Darwin, 26 April 1853).
2
William and George Howard Darwin were the executors of Erasmus’s will.
3
CD had inherited Erasmus’s house in London and property in Lincoln (see letter to W. E. Darwin, 13 September [1881]). The lawyers handling the estate were George Moultrie Salt and his London agents, Paterson, Snow, & Bloxam (see letter from G. H. Darwin, [29 August 1881]).
4
William and Sara Darwin came to Down on 3 December (letter from Emma Darwin to H. E. Litchfield, 4 December 1881 (DAR 219.9: 279)).
5
George was planning to apply for the position of Plumian Professor of astronomy and experimental philosophy at Cambridge University, in the event of James Challis’s death (see letter from G. H. Darwin, 17 November 1881).
6
William Graham visited the Darwins at Down on 3 December 1881; Joseph Dalton Hooker and Hyacinth Hooker were also present (letter from Emma Darwin to H. E. Litchfield, 4 December 1881 (DAR 219.9: 279)).

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-13497F,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-13497F