Ɛpsilon

From E. A. Darwin to Emma Darwin   [before 19 November 1867]1

Dear Emma

Many thanks for having settled my affairs. I do hope I have not put you to inconvenience but I had no idea that Cumbd was going down to you so soon.2 It seems very doubtful whether Jos3 will be able to come as Caroline4 says he is very much pulled down. Lyell was talking yesterday with great admiration of Pangenesis.5 What great news about Woolmer— I hope it wont be very hideous which is the most that I expect.6

yours affec, | E D

Tithes7

1
The date is established by the references to Charles Lyell’s opinion of pangenesis, Thomas Woolner’s bust of CD, and the tithe payment (see nn. 5, 6, and 7, below).
2
The reference is to the family of Hensleigh and Frances Emma Elizabeth Wedgwood, who lived at 1 Cumberland Place, Regent’s Park, London (Post Office London directory 1867). Frances and her daughter Katherine stayed at Down from 21 to 23 November 1867 (Emma Darwin’s diary (DAR 242)).
4
Caroline Sarah Wedgwood was Josiah Wedgwood’s wife and CD and Erasmus’s sister.
5
Lyell had evidently seen and commented on CD’s hypothesis of pangenesis in August 1867, after reading the proof-sheets of Variation (see letter to Charles Lyell, 22 August [1867] and n. 4).
6
CD wrote to Joseph Dalton Hooker that Woolner was coming to Down to make a bust of him for Erasmus in early December (letter to J. D. Hooker, 17 November [1867]).
7
Erasmus usually sent payments for tithes to CD in November or early December. No enclosure to this letter has been found. CD recorded receipt of cheques for tithes from Josiah Wedgwood III and Erasmus on 19 November 1867 (CD’s Account books–banking account (Down House MS)). For more on CD’s and Emma’s incomes, see A. Desmond and Moore 1991, p. 396.

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-5334,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-5334