To W. E. Darwin   4 November [1861]1

Down Kent

Nov. 4th.

My dear William

I enclose Mr Hacon’s note about your will;2 you will see that it is of no importance making one at present; but of course you can do as you like. Whenever you do make a will always consult a Lawyer.— My will, as you know is equal partition; up to about £15,000, & if there should be more, all excess to be divided equally amongst the sons alone.—

I enclose a nice note from Franky.3

Mamma goes tomorrow to Hastings for 4 or 5 days to see Aunt Charlotte, whose health, I fear, is rapidly failing & I doubt whether she will live very long.—4 Poor Mammy has been having bad toothach, & on Sunday Mr Engleheart pulled out one.—5

Skimp was pleased by your note.6 A run-away-horse at night is no joke, & I am heartily glad you were not hurt.— (N.B people do not go at full “tare” along the “rode”).— You seem to getting on well with pleasant acquaintances. The mathematicks must come hard.— I wonder in how many months you will feel up to all the account Books.—

Your letters are a great pleasure to us.—

I keep up Torquay good habits & almost every day take a pretty good walk in the country.7 I met Montagu L. lately with arm in sling: Lenny says his manner of speaking seems altered8

Sir John has been laid up at Geneva by gout for a fortnight; what a time poor Lady L. must have had; but I daresay the gout will make him less cracky.—9

I have been doing some good work at the homologies of Orchids, by tracing their vessels, & Hooker thinks that I have made out their structure well.—

Good Night, my dear old fellow.—

Your affecty. | C. Darwin

1
The year is given by the reference to Emma Darwin’s visit to Charlotte Langton (see n. 4, below).
2
The letter from William Mackmurdo Hacon, CD’s solicitor, has not been found.
3
The letter from Francis Darwin has not been found.
4
Charlotte Langton, Emma Darwin’s eldest sister, was staying in St Leonard’s-on-Sea, near Hastings, Sussex, in the hope that the sea air would improve her health (Emma Darwin (1915) 2: 178). According to her diary, Emma Darwin visited Charlotte from 5 to 9 November 1861. Charlotte Langton died in January 1862 at the age of sixty-five.
5
Stephen Paul Engleheart was a surgeon in Down (Post Office directory of the six home counties 1862).
6
‘Skimp’ was the family nickname of Horace Darwin, aged ten.
7
The Darwins spent July and August 1861 in Torquay, Devon.
8
Montagu Lubbock had been seriously injured in a carriage accident in May 1861 (see letter to T. H. Huxley, 22 May [1861], and H. G. Hutchinson 1914).
9
John William Lubbock and Harriet Lubbock were neighbours of the Darwins in Down, residing at High Elms.

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

4.2 (N.B … "rode") 4.3] square brackets in MS

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-3307,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-3307