From Erasmus Alvey Darwin   21 [January 1863]1

21st.

Dear Charles.

I shall be most glad to have you and hope much the experiment will succeed tho’ you must give it fair play & not work yourself to death—2 We were rather meditating a dinner with Dr Falconer as basis but it might just as well be the week after as we have settled nothing.3

The juvenile world is very happy in the thoughts of the ball tomorrow & I hope Emma will not break down.4

When you come order your newspaper here as mine goes off to Algiers—5

Yours affec | E D

1
The date is established by the reference to CD’s intention to stay at Erasmus’s house in London (see n. 2, below) and by the reference to a ball taking place ‘tomorrow’ (see n. 4, below).
2
According to Emma Darwin’s diary (DAR 242), CD, Emma, Henrietta, and Horace Darwin stayed at Erasmus’s house at 6 Queen Anne Street, London, from 4 to 14 February 1863.
4
On 22 January 1863, Emma Darwin recorded in her diary (DAR 242) a visit to London ‘for ball at C.P.’ Cumberland Place was the home of Hensleigh and Frances Wedgwood.
5
Erasmus may have been sending his newspapers to his invalid cousin, James Mackintosh Wedgwood, who had left in November 1862 to spend the winter in Algiers (see the letter from Emma Darwin to William Erasmus Darwin, [13 November 1862], in DAR 219.1: 65). The winter of 1862 to 1863 saw an influx of British into Algeria, many of whom were ‘seeking health in more genial climes’ (see Rogers 1865, p. viii).

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-3399,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-3399