Ɛpsilon

To Francis Darwin   8 [June? 1868]1

Down

8th

My dear F.

On Jan. 29th 1868 I paid you a cheque for £14"10"0 (£10 out of your Legacy & 4"10.0 for Fees)— This cheque has never been presented to my Bankers; & I never knew a cheque so much delayed.—2

What did you do with it? Did you send to Union Bank, or pay it to some Tradesman? if in Cambridge, enquire about it, & let me hear soon.—3 If you had lost it, you wd of course have told me.—

I hope the poor dear old “Pelican on the House-top” is jolly,— I shd think so from his last jolly note.—4

Your affect. Father | C. Darwin

1
The month is conjectured and the year established from entries in CD’s Account books–banking account (Down House MS). See n. 2, below.
2
In CD’s Account books–banking account a payment of £14 10s. to Francis Darwin is noted on 29 January 1868; alongside entries at the end of June 1868 is a note reading, ‘14.10 Frank old cheque not ticked off’. CD evidently placed a tick on his record of each cheque payment when the cheque was presented to his bankers. The 29 January payment does have a tick beside it, so presumably the cheque was eventually accounted for; however, no reply to this letter has been found.
3
CD had banked with the Union Bank of London since 1853 (see Correspondence vol. 5, letter to John Higgins, 11 April [1853]). Francis was an undergraduate at Cambridge University.
4
Presumably a loose reference to Ps. 101: 6–7: ‘I am like a pelican of the wilderness: I am like an owl of the desert. I watch, and am as a sparrow alone upon the house top’, and to George Howard Darwin. George was a fellow at Cambridge University. No letter from George to his family from this time has been found.

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

1.1 1868] interl
1.1 £14] ‘£’ above ‘14’
1.1 £10] ‘£’ above ‘10’
2.3 of] over illeg

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-5769,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-5769