From E. A. Darwin   [before 20 February 1866?]1

Dear Charles

Perhaps this is in Georges way if his Pedigree does not go so high as this man professes.2

Lyell3 was here yesterday & was calculating in an envious kind of way how much work you could do, & he came to the conclusion that counting every thing you could do more than any of the philosophers.

E D

1
The date is conjectured from the relationship between this letter and the letter from H. E. Darwin to G. H. Darwin, [20 February 1866] (DAR 245: 275). The letter of [20 February 1866] enclosed a letter originally sent to E. A. Darwin and conveyed an offer of one guinea from CD to enable George Howard Darwin to visit ‘the man in London & try & discover whether it was male line’. The date of DAR 245: 275 is established from references to various family visits, which are also recorded in Emma Darwin’s diary (DAR 242).
2
The enclosure has not been found. The reference is to CD’s second son, George, who was interested in family history. A number of family pedigrees and related notes are among his papers, for example in DAR 210.14 and the Francis Galton archive, University College, London (Freeman 1984, p. vii).

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-4965,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-4965