To Frederick Ransome   [6 February 1866]1

[Down]

My dr Sir

I have been ill for a long time & have therefore not commun with you— Last Spring (in hope of forming a new Coy) you asked for delay in paying me the £100, which you promised as a final settlement of the loan of £250. I hope you are now prepared to pay it & finally settle the affair—2 I trust the Companies is more prosperous than when you last wrote & I beg leave to remain

ADraft

1
The date is established by the relationship between this letter and the letter from Frederick Ransome, 7 February 1866.
2
CD had purchased shares in Ransome’s Patent Siliceous Stone Company in 1852, and had subsequently made several loans to Ransome; in March 1864, CD received a promissory note from Ransome for £100 (CD’s Investment book (Down House MS)). In 1865, Ransome started another company, the Patent Concrete Stone Company, and asked CD to extend his loan another year. See Correspondence vol. 13, letters from Frederick Ransome, 6 March 1865 and 9 March 1865.

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

1.2 (in hope … Coy)] interl
1.4 finally] interl
1.4 Companies] after del ‘affairs of your’
1.4 is] above del ‘are now’
1.4 more] interl

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-5148,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-5148