Ɛpsilon

From John Maurice Herbert   3 May 1867

Rocklands, | Ross.

3 May 1867

My dear Darwin

I think dear old Dawes was a friend of yours— If so, and you consider him worthy of a memorial, do you feel disposed to subscribe? The enclosed papers will show you that we have made a beginning. The form of the Memorial has not yet been decided upon. The Dean’s death has been a sad blow to me— He was my dearest & most intimate friend in this neighbourhood—1

I suppose you are still busy at the old work—writing huge books, and gaining fresh heaps of immortality— I was glad to hear from Profr. Tyndal some few months back that Dr. Bence Jones had made a new man of you—2

I sincerely hope, my dear old friend, that the restoration is complete and permanent— Oh that you were frisky enough to pay us a visit in the course of the Summer— Nothing wd. give Mrs. Herbert & me greater pleasure than to receive you & Mrs. Darwin.3

Pray give her our kindest regards, & accept the same from yrs. always | J M Herbert

C. Darwin Esq

1
Richard Dawes, dean of Hereford, died on 10 March 1867; he had been a fellow at Downing College, Cambridge, when CD was an undergraduate at Christ’s and Herbert at St John’s (Alum. Cantab., DNB). Dawes had lived at the Deanery in Hereford; Herbert lived sixteen miles from Hereford at Goodrich, near Ross, Herefordshire (Post Office directory of Gloucestershire, with Bath, Bristol, Herefordshire, and Shropshire 1863). Dawes’s memorial was an altar tomb in the north-east transept of Hereford Cathedral, paid for by public subscription (Havergal 1881). The enclosures have not been found.
2
Herbert refers to John Tyndall, professor of natural philosophy at the Royal Institution of Great Britain and the Royal School of Mines (ODNB), and the physician Henry Bence Jones. Jones had been treating CD since July 1865; CD believed Jones’s treatment had been beneficial (see Correspondence vol. 13).
3
Herbert refers to his wife, Mary Anne Herbert, and to Emma Darwin. For an indication of the friendly relations between the Darwins and the Herberts, see Correspondence vol. 3, letter to J. M. Herbert, [3 September? 1846], and Correspondence vol. 6, letter to J. M. Herbert, 2 January [1856].

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-5526,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-5526