To W. E. Darwin   [November 1857]1

Thursday Evening

My dear William

I wrote a few days since to Mr Wilson, the Tutor, near Norwich & got an answer this morning saying that his house was full & he could not receive you.2 I am extremely much provoked that I did not write sooner.— I have written this morning to Mr Mayor to ask if he could advise any one else.3 I have been a “muff” about the affair.—

Your last note was a very nice one, & written very well, thanks to my jobation to you.— The Grey mare is all right & we have taken her up to get her ready for you.— She has been very seldom in the tax-cart, for she makes such a fuss in starting, that she is hardly safe; & I do not think Parslow much likes riding her,4 so I am inclined to think we had better sell her after the holidays.— I am glad to hear you are going on with your painting, it so nice & useful an amusement. Aunt Catherine has got a small house in Regents’ Park, in York Terrace, on the opposite side to Cumberland Terrace,5 & she proposes having you for a visitor for a fortnight & giving you some good lessons from some good master.6

1
Dated from the reference to Emily Catherine Darwin taking a house in London (see letter to W. D. Fox, 30 October [1857], and n. 5, below).
2
See letter to W. E. Darwin, 29 [October 1857]. William Greive Wilson was the rector of Forncett, Norfolk. Apparently Wilson was eventually engaged, for there is an entry in CD’s Account book (Down House MS) on 6 February 1858 for a payment to him.
3
Robert Bickersteth Mayor was William Darwin’s housemaster at Rugby.
4
See letters to W. E. Darwin, 25 [November 1856] and 10 [December 1856].
5
Emily Catherine Darwin, CD’s younger sister, took a house near the home of Hensleigh and Fanny Mackintosh Wedgwood, who lived at 17 Cumberland Terrace, Regent’s Park, London (Post Office London directory 1857).
6
There is an entry in CD’s Account book (Down House MS) on 17 July 1857  for ‘Willy Clothes Drawing Utensils & present’.

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

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Please cite as “DCP-LETT-2095,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-2095